Was it Meant to Be
by SaviSwe
Summary: Finchel story. What happened when Finn left Rachel on the train, what will happen to them both while they're apart, and will they get back together? And what happens when a sad truth about Rachel's health is revealed? May contain strong language and on. Disclaimer: Glee is not mine. All rights to FOX
1. Chapter 1

The train just kept on going, it didn't stop, it wouldn't stop (not for him anyway), and he knew it. The train picked up in speed and rushed away towards east. And here he was. Sitting on his knees, tears in his eyes, and _no_ idea what to do. He never left the rain with his eyes; he just kept on watching it. Even when it was out of sight he kept his eyes at the spot where he'd last seen it. Did he do the right thing? Is he out of his mind for doing this? Oh my God, he just made the biggest mistake of his life. What is he going to do with his life now? How in hell could he do what he just did? And how in _earth _can he now just sit there on the platform, regretting everything he'd done the last 30 minutes, only caring about himself. He didn't hear anything; the only thing going through his mind was her words of trying to understand, her sobs. And the only picture showing up in his brain was her beautiful face, tears streaming down, tears he had caused.  
It wasn't until a hand came to his shoulders and his stepbrothers calling for him that he, almost, snapped out of the thoughts. For the first time since the rain had start moving he turned his head and looked at the one person that may be able to make him feel better. Even though he now had looked away from where the train had been he didn't stand, his body didn't want to get up, or do anything for that matter.  
Kurt tried his best to make him stand and get him to his friends, but Finn refused. Are you surprised? He just left the love of his life. And no, he hadn't just set her free as he had convinced himself the last few days, he may have put her on a train to fulfill her dreams, but he did leave her all alone in the big city. What if something happened to her? He had promised her to never leave her. On the other hand he had promised her junior year that he would never break up with her, and there he had been the jerk and done just that. Maybe that's the kind of person he was. He made promises to the people he loved and then just broke them off. When he started thinking about it he realized he'd done it to several people, not only to Rachel. He'd promise Quinn to support her and be there for her, now that didn't happen. It did turn out that the child wasn't his as she had told him but he had made a promise… and then broke it. He also promised Puck freshmen year that they would stay bros for always, never letting each other down, always be true to the other. And even though they now were best friends again (although sometimes Puck would drive him crazy) and he had, several times, let him down and not always been true to him, he can't really say he'd always been there for him or always told him the truth.  
All of a sudden, at least for Finn (not so sudden for his friends), 15 people stood around him. He didn't look up, his eyes had turned away from Kurt down to the platform, but he saw the shoes and legs of the friends that would be there for him, that had been there for him. He felt two couples of strong arms lift him to his feet, and although his legs felt like jelly at first, he did eventually stand on his own, now one hand on his back and another on his shoulder. That's when he finally took the very long and dept breath he needed. He turned his face upwards and look at the best support group there was. No, seriously, if there was one group of people Finn would feel comfortable sitting in a creepy looking room with telling them everything that was inside of him, this would be the group. He studied them. Mike was holding on to Tine tightly from behind while she tried to hide the millions of tears streaming down her cheeks. Brittany had her head on Santana's shoulder and they both had that sad face on. Rory and Sugar stood behind Artie, all wearing a face of concern and sadness. Sam and Mercedes stood next to Joe and Blaine. Sam and Blaine were looking at Finn, worry in their faces. He turned his eyes to his left and met Quinn's grey blue eyes, somehow telling him that everything was going to be okay. Still with one of his hands on Finns back Puck looked at Finn, and never through the years Finn known Puck he'd never seen that much feeling in his eyes, well maybe when everything was going on with Beth, but except for that. At last he looked to his right, now more tears in his eyes, Ms. Pillsbury's calming eyes looking at him, in one way making him relax a bit. And then, with a strong hand on his shoulder and so much support, Mr. Shue. They locked eyes and Mr. Shue patted his back.

What the hell was he thinking? The army? Leaving her like that? "… letting you free" that had been his words when he basically told her he was leaving her. _He_ was leaving _her _on their, supposedly, _wedding day_. What was he thinking? Making her believe that they were on their way to begin their life with each other, and then just telling her that he's "setting her free" and going to Ford Benning, and then he just took her hand and kissed her. Not only did he do all that, he ran with the train until he couldn't keep the speed. Why did he do all that to her? She was still crying, this had been the worst day of her life. She never let him go with her eyes until he stopped running and she could no longer see him. And that was it. That was the last time she would see him in… how long? Months? Years? Was she ever going to see him again? Hell, this was killing her. Thinking of all of this just made her cry more. Thank God no one was sitting next to her, or in front of her either for that matter. She had noticed though, how other people around her kept looking at her. They probably saw the whole thing, but none of them will understand exactly what happened. Looking at from where everyone else where, it probably looked like two teen lovers said goodbye going to continue their lives in different parts of the country. That made her think; did all her friends know exactly what happened? Just as her eyes had started to dry and she didn't think she could cry anymore, they came again. She lost it. The thought of maybe never get to see Finn again hit her and the only thing she could do right now was to look out the window and let her tears fall.  
Somehow, during the travel she fell asleep. She woke up when a hand was grapping her shoulder and carefully shaking her. She looked up to meet an elderly woman's sweet eyes. New York was the final stop; she thanked the woman for waking her up and grabbed her pink little suitcase. Straightening out her hair and putting on her red hat she took a deep breath and walked out of the train. The moment she took her first step on the platform she felt the New York City air fill her lungs. Even though she'd been through tons of shit in the last couples of hours she was in New York. She would probably spend the whole night thinking about Finn, but for right now. She decided to take in the awesomeness of New York. When the four words hit her mind she stopped. That was exactly what she had told Finn the last time she was here. 24 hours before he risked everything and kissed her on stage. God, she missed him.  
She took out her phone and was about to text her dad to tell him that she'd arrived, but she decided not to. Instead she walked out to 42 Street and took in everything New York had to offer. And then, she just walked. She didn't really know where she was going, or where she wanted to go. After a while she realized walking on the streets of New York, not knowing where to go _and _carrying a suitcase, even though it was small, wasn't the easiest thing do to. She had to admit though, even though she didn't know where she was going or why, she did feel kind of good just walking around looking like she, at least almost, belonged. She never looked at the street signs, she didn't look left and right or the lights when she walked over the street, she just followed to flow. Whenever she felt like turning she did, she never slowed down her steps. She turned right into a street and was faced by a street she sure knew the name of. 5th Avenue, how did she get here really? And when she took a step onto the path walk and turned left. That's when she saw it. Just the sight almost made her cry, but now, kind of, knowing where to go, she just kept on walking. Passing shop after shop, she passed Hollister and all teen girls taking photos with the models, she took a quick glance, but there was only one for Rachel Berry, and he was far away. On another street, in another city, in another state, at least they still were in the same country, she thought. That's when she passed the underground Apple Store on the other side of the street. She crossed the next street and walked into the green. She didn't really pay any attention to her surroundings, which led to her almost tripping over trash a couple of times, or once almost run over a little kid. Thank God the parents weren't like her own. If someone wasn't careful around Rachel Berry, as a small kid or as for now, they were not going to have an easy time with her dads.  
Finally she reached her, in some way, destination. Bow Bridge, Central Park. She walked on to the bridge and stood right on the spot where she'd met Finn that night he took her out for their "professional" date. Here he'd given her those beautiful flowers and then escorted her to Sardi's. It had been a perfect night, well, until she ran away from him after he had tried to kiss her. Why did she run away really? Was it Jesse? Was it her big dreams in New York, as she'd told him? Or was it just plain fear? Either way she kind of regret it. Kind of, because the moment they shared on the stage was… well, amazing, even though it did cause them nationals. She put her hand on the reeling and moved it over the smooth stone, she thought about Finn. What was he doing right now? Where was he? And that's when she broke down. Half walking half running off the bridge with her little pink suitcase and then just break down when she reached the green grass right next to the bridge. Just a few inches from the water, she looked at it through her tears and saw the reflection of a beautiful blue sky, the high buildings of New York surrounding the mirror of all the blue. She picked up her phone and saw that she had four missed calls, three was from her dads, who were probably worrying sick about now, the other one was from Kurt. Feeling like she would rather talk to her best gay right now, but knowing that her dads would go crazy, if they already hadn't, she decided to call her dads first.  
"Strawberry! Are you okay?" Hiram almost screamed into the phone, she could hear how Leroy was calming him down in the back ground and taking the phone away from his husband.  
"I'm fine" was all she could say.  
"Where are you now?" her dads voice was calm and full of love. Something she definitely needed right now. She gave her dads the information of where she was and not to long after hanging up on them they were right by her. Hiram ran over to his only daughter and hugged her hard, patting her back and trying to convince her it would all be okay. He then went aside and let Leroy take his turn. Hugging her and stroking her hair. Rachel loved both her dads to death, but there was something about her daddy's hugs and soft words that always made her feel a little bit better, while her father's sometimes made her more worried about him then the situation she was upset about. When it came to discussing shows and all of that, her father was sometimes the better one, if that's how she could express herself. After a few moments she broke out of her daddy's embrace and looked at them both. Still tears running down her cheeks, eyes red and swollen face. She hoped they had a nice hotel room somewhere where she could just relax for a few moments. But Leroy and Hiram Berry had other plans for their daughter.  
Knowing their daughter very well they knew that she thought the one thing for her right now would be a hotel room she could be in for the rest of the night, but what she needed was something to get her mind of everything. They did however go back to their hotel on the 30th street, not far from Times Square and let her freshen up a bit. Then telling her they needed to go eat together made her dress up a little. They weren't those mean parents who wanted their kids to only focus on carrier, but at this moment, doing just that would keep her mind of Finn for just tonight. After a nice dinner at Sardi's, which she didn't seem to appreciate as much as they would have though they went and saw a Broadway show, and not just a Broadway show. The two elder Berrys took their lovely daughter to go see Wicked. Once again they were surprised when they realized she didn't seem as impressed by the staging as they were. What in earth had happened the last time she was in New York that made everything they would think would make her go crazy suddenly didn't. Or was it simply the fact that she was away from someone that meant so much to her.  
Half way through the first act though, she did smile. And they saw the glimmering in her eyes. They saw the hope. And between the acts, it was like they had their little girl back. Talking on and on about how amazing it was. Everything felt just like it should, until a heavier man came up to them and starred at Rachel.  
"Here again I see." He gave her a big smile, and she, after realizing who the man was returned it. Without any more thinking about the situation she turned to her dads and started talking again about how she loved the music and how amazing it is to just sit there and sing along, and how she couldn't wait until the second act when she would be hearing both of her favorite songs. First then did she realize her dads confusion.  
"Oh, well , when we were here for nationals, me and Kurt snuck in here to feel how it was being on a real Broadway stage, and that guy" she turned her head a bit towards the man "let us have the stage for 15 minutes. It was amazing and just… So amazing. Can't believe he stills remember me though…" her dads just looked at her. Then, they smiled.  
When Finn had come that night to tell them his plan they didn't really know what to do. Yes, they didn't want the two youngsters to get married at 18, but they still loved Finn. He'd made their girl so happy and helped her through so much. He'd been there when they didn't know what to do. When Rachel had choked on her NYADA addition and told everyone she wanted to be left alone they had, everyone, just let her be. That night she didn't want to talk to anyone. Around 9 pm they'd gotten a call from Finn asking how she was doing since she'd turned off her phone. That was the first moment when they realized how much this young man cared for their daughter, but what was coming in less than 24 hours made them truly understand it. The day after Rachel had just gone to school, without breakfast which had Hiram worry a lot about her, and when the two men came home from work she was locked up in her room, not wanting to talk to anyone. Not really knowing what to do, neither of them had opened the door to her room, only talking through it. But then it was 7.30, they had just finished dinner and had let Rachel know they saved some for her when she wanted it, a knock came on the door. Leroy had gone to open it, only to find Finn standing there, a firm look on his face.  
"Hello " how many times did he have to tell this 18-year old that he could call him by his first name? "May I come in?" Leroy had let him in, without a doubt and Finn had politely said hello to Hiram as well before he asked about Rachel. When both told him that she'd still been in her room he'd asked them if he was allowed to go and try to talk to her. They nodded but followed him up the stairs and stood waiting by the stairs to see what would happen. Finn had first knocked on the door and called her name, but when the message got clear that she didn't want to talk to anyone, he did what no one else had. That young man just opened up the door and stormed in. The Berrys had followed him to make sure he wasn't going to treat their angel bad, although they were pretty sure that would never happen you never know. And they were right. He didn't, instead he lifted her up from her foster position on the bed and sat down on the bed, still carrying their daughter, and then he sat there. Holding her as tightly as possible, never letting her go. She had buried her face into his neck and he had hugged her tighter, brushing her hair. That's when the two elder men left the two teenagers alone. Honestly they have no idea how longed he stayed, when they walked up and passed Rachel's room to go to bed he was still sitting there on the bed holding on to their daughter giving her all the love and support she needed.  
When they woke up the next day the door to their girl's bedroom was open and they could see their lovely angel sleeping softly, her dark head on two pillows and the blanket over her. A note was set on her bedside table and Leroy could see the signing of one Finn Hudson. There was another one down in the kitchen. Thanking them for letting him come in and promised them that the moment Rachel had fallen asleep and he's tucked her in he'd left to go home.  
They really did love that kid. So when he told them how he hadn't been accepted into the Actor's Studio and Kurt hadn't come into NYADA, and he made sure they knew about Rachel's plan about staying in Lima for a year, he told them how he felt like he was in the way of Rachel's dream. Her dream to become a star on Broadway, which he really did believe in, they both had been a little confused to where he was going. Then the tears had started to fall from the boy's eyes across from them. Through the tears he told them how he'd found a train ticket from Lima to New York that would depart the same day that they were supposed to get married at and that the departing time would be about the same as when they needed to leave. He asked them if they could meet her up in New York and make sure she was safe. He asked for permission to be the one dropping her off and telling her all about what was going on, and pleased the two men not to tell her anything in beforehand. Hiram and Leroy had only nodded, not really knowing what else to say. They were really proud of Finn's thoughts, but also a bit worried about the reaction from their daughter when all of this came down on her. And then, right before their daughters, soon to be ex-fiancé was about to leave Hiram asked:  
"Son, what are you planning to do?" The two Berrys knew that if he would stay here their daughter would do everything in her power to change it all up so that she would stay in Lima. They watched as Finn's face suddenly became even more serious than before, if that was even possible.  
"The Army." Was the last words he said before thanking them both with a nod and closing the door behind him.  
Lights started to flicker and the bell rang. Leroy snapped out of his thoughts about Finn and how much he'd done for his daughter and joined his perfect little family as they walked back into the theatre.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine. All rights to FOX and Ryan.  
I'm getting so excited to see that there's a lot of you reading this story. Just wished you would review more, haha ;) I promise real eye to eye Finchel moments in the future. **

Finn wasn't really sure how he got home. He's not even sure how he got off the platform. He knew he walked by himself, and that Mr. Shue had driven him home, but he doesn't remember any of it. Puck had come by, right after Finn had gotten out of Mr. Shue's car, with his car and then somehow gotten home. Honestly, he didn't really care. Not that he didn't care about Puck, but right at this moment he had other things on his mind. Now, he was lying in bed in his room, starring at the roof. Gosh, he missed her so much. But this was what was best for her. Right?  
Just a few minutes ago he had begun his 30th minute of constant crying and sobbing. He'd lay on his stomach barely able to breathe between all the crying. His mom was sitting on the bed rubbing his back trying to calm him down. Kurt had been sitting on the floor right in front of his face keep on telling him all of this would turn out in a good way, sooner or later. Burt had been standing by the door, as often, kind of unsure what his next move was going to be. After about 15 minutes Kurt had stopped talking and just sat there. And after another 10, Finn had lifted his head and sat up in his bed. Not even bothered to wipe the tears away he asked his family to leave him alone for a while. They all surprised Finn when none of them said anything against him. Any other day he would have thought that had been rude, he was devastated and they didn't even bother to ask him if he was sure, but not today. Today he was relieved that his family understood him so well. And now, here he was. For a moment he was thinking that maybe he should try to do something. Like, call the guys and have a fun guy night. But of course, that made him think of the talk that somehow always came up when the Glee guys were hanging out together – Girls. He recalled what happened the last night they had together.  
They had all met up at the school to play some ball. After about an hour they had taken their rides back to Finn's place. There they'd been hanging around just doing their thing, but of course. After a while when they all sat down in the pack yard, soda cans in their hands Sam started it off talking about how nothing seemed to get Mercedes to get back to him, and just like that – girlfriend talk. As usual, both Finn and Mike were rather quite, first of all they had the perfect girlfriends, and second of all none of them felt like sharing what was going on in their relationships, other than the fact that they were great, something Puck didn't seem to always believe.  
So no, Finn Hudson was not going to hang out with the guys. It would cause too much pain. Maybe he could go out for a quick jog. Throwing his long legs over the edge of the bed he took a quick glance at the alarm clock on his night stand. 6 pm. Oh crap… there she was again. The photo of the two of them on their senior prom as prom king and queen was sitting right beside the clock, and next to it, one of his favorite pictures of Rachel. He stared at the photos for a while, picked up the one of only Rachel and followed her face structure with his finger.  
It took a while before he finally put the photo down. There was a moment when he seriously considered taking the photos and put them somewhere he would see them unless he really wanted to. But something didn't feel right about that. There was no way he was ever going to forget about her, with or without photos, but something inside of him told him that putting those photos away wasn't going to make him feel better, and he would most likely just put them back either way, and maybe, maybe, would those photos make him smile one day. Perhaps not today, probably not tomorrow, perhaps not the day after tomorrow either, but a day when those photos would make him feel better, no matter what, would come. One day. Not today.  
He took his jogging shoes in his hand and walked over to his night stand again. He picked up Rachel's photo again and kissed it, just a little one, hoping she knew how much he was thinking about her.  
When he reached the end of his street he turned left onto the slightly bigger road and kept on going. At first when he very simply had planed his route before leaving the house he was just going to take a quick one around the neighborhood but after everything he decided to just go with his gut – which was telling him to go, at right this moment, to the left and out of his neighborhood. He ran, and ran, kind of like that guy in that movie Rachel made him watch. What was it called? The title was the same as the name of the main character, the guy who ran. Apparently there's a restaurant that has something to do with that movie too, and you can find it like in many places. It was almost like Hard Rock Café. Kurt had started talking about it and how he would like to visit everyone of those restaurant spread over the entire country, there's apparently one in San Francisco and one in Honolulu. How come he remembered all Kurt's talk about this restaurant, except the name of it, but couldn't remember the name of the movie Rachel had introduced to him? He just had to remember it! This was freaking crazy! Had he'd been like this to Rachel all the time? He knew very well, that when she had her crazy moments and started talking really loud and really fast without any warning he would lose it totally and he wouldn't have any idea what she was talking about. Then there was also moments when she would start talking about something like a Broadway show or some big Broadway star, he would try to listen and take in as much as possible, but somehow he always lost interest. He now made a promise to himself: when Rachel would be a star he would make sure to always know every single part of her life, big or small, maybe that would make him a stalker… That may not be very good. But he would. And when… no, if, they got back together, he would listen to every single word that came out of her beautiful mouth. No matter how fast she was speaking, or loud, or how much he would make sure to take in everything she said and he would remember it. Hell, why was he thinking of this now! It may very well be over with them and now is the day he realizes what he'd done and what he should've done? How stupid can a person be?  
He passed the way into Quinn and Mike's neighborhood. He remembered when he used to come in here more or less every day. Things really do change. When he and Quinn dated he never imagined them being together for forever, or at least not until she got pregnant. Hey! Something else to think about, awesome! That day… wow. First Quinn had ignored him for like forever… or at least since the day before. When she said those words, it was like his whole world just broke down. Thank God he had Mr. Shue. What would he have done without him? He had believed his, then, love when she told him that the child was his. He believed that there was a possibility that he could have gotten her pregnant, even though there was no way he could have. But there he was, believing every single word that pretty little blond cheerleader said. Just thinking of it made him mad. Why was he mad? It was almost three years ago now. Get over it! And honestly, Quinn was a good person. She'd been good to him, helped him through stuff, she'd helped several people. She even helped Rachel sometimes, something he ,or anyone for that matter, never imagined would happen. In the later time she was like a new person, or wait… he though she was until prom. First when she'd asked if he would campaign with her he had told her he wanted to think about it, but he would get back to her in the end of the day, if not earlier. In math class he was thinking about it. He'd known since sophomore year that her "high school dream" had been to become prom queen. And after everything she'd been through with her little drop during the summer, Shelby coming to Lima with Beth, Sam not being interested anymore and the accident, it couldn't hurt helping her, right? So he told her during lunch that he would help her. He hadn't seen her that happy in a long time, especially since the accident. Posters were being put up and it wasn't until then he got it. They'd been working on their campaign for a whole day, since lunch the day he accepted the suggestion until now, the day after. Still he hadn't told Rachel about what was going on, why didn't he tell her? Would she have acted the same way when she found out by herself as if he would have told her? Probably not… So when she rushed up to him that day, poster high in her hand and throwing the poster and all her words on him, he really didn't get it. What was she on about? Now, looking back at that moment, he understands why she got upset. Not only does he understand it, but when he now remembers that moment he sees all the pain in her face that she had. Worst part of all of it, he didn't care. Yes, he still loved the crap out of her, but he didn't do anything to make up for it. Not early enough either way. He did kind of support her anti-prom idea, or he did support it, but he wasn't there for her, not early enough. Saying that you support something and then go do something else, like actually going to prom. She kept on telling him she was fine with him going to prom, it was his last chance to go to one and he's already put the effort into it. He had tried convincing her to come with him, but obviously not feeling very strong about going to prom with him when he was going to have to spend most of the time with Quinn. Maybe it had been a good thing that he'd walked in on Quinn while she was standing, and walking (though badly) on her own, if he hadn't, he wouldn't have known what was going on, and most importantly, he wouldn't have left prom to go and be with the only one for him. In his car on the way to the hotel he felt a little bad for leaving Quinn like that, but something told him he was doing the right thing. It was obligated for the nominees to have a dance together, they had one… or most parts of one. Finn also knew that Joe was there, and he would enjoy dancing with Quinn a lot more than Finn did. Then he reached the hotel, he reached the elevator, he reached the floor, he reached the door and placed a knock on it. He remember Becky opening the door, very disappointed, he never got to know why. Puck, Blaine and Kurt were there, but no Rachel. At first he got worried, what if something had happened to her? But maybe the others wouldn't look so calm then. Or what if she'd left because he didn't get there earlier? When the others had answered his question about where she was and Becky had said she was in the bathroom, and been there for like forever, he got worried again. What if she was crying? Or was sick? But then he heard her magical voice, and his beautiful, sexy, amazing angel walked out of the bathroom in a beautiful dress, beautiful long and natural hair and her beautiful, adorable face. She'd looked stunning. And it was in that moment he decided that there was no way he was going to let her stand here, in a beautiful prom gown and just look perfect and not come to prom with him. There was no way! So he just spoke his mind, or at least what he could say and do in front of the four other people in the room. Then, very smooth of him if he got to say so himself, he told the others that he wanted them to come as well.  
The car ride back to school was one of the best rides he'd have. True, Puck was still determined not to come… which kind of bugged Finn, wanting his best buddy there with him. He had something else on his mind though, Rachel in the front seat, hid hand over hers, hugging it tight, Kurt and Blaine in the backseat excited about… he don't really know what since his main concentration had to be on keeping his eyes on the road with Rachel so close. It was amazing dancing with her on their senior prom, being so close and having so much fun, seeing her smile and hearing her giggle. So cute! Then she disappeared for a while, and when she got back, it was crowning time. All of a sudden, he, Finn Hudson, the Glee loser and quarterback, was senior prom king. He looked at Santana and Quinn to his left, both wearing huge grins. They knew who would be queen, but how come they were both looking so happy? It was Quinn and Santana, the only time they would be happy for something like this, it would only be if they were involved. His first thought was that they may have gotten the same amount of votes. But when Figgins told the whole school who was their prom queen, he was lost. Rachel? His Rach? Prom Queen? When he finally managed to snap out of his confusion and right before Rachel came up on stage, he saw how Quinn and Santana shared an amused look. Did they, Satan and the blonde devil, have something to do about this? This wasn't like when Kurt was elected, Rachel getting up there. It wasn't mocking. Finn had been so proud. He's still a bit unsure about what. The one thing he does know though, dancing close to Rachel and telling her how much she meant to him. Right when he believed this night couldn't be any better, Quinn stood up. He hadn't gotten the same shock everyone else got, since he kind of got it a couple of hours earlier. But the happiness and hope that spread through the gym, amazing. Finn had kissed Rachel, with all he could… or at least so they wouldn't be thrown out. When prom was over the whole Glee club had gone to Breadstix, of course, and ate. After their late dinner they all went different ways. Finn doubled checked with Kurt, Blaine and Puck what they were going to do and then offered Rachel a ride home. But they didn't go home. That was the first time he had surprised her with a "driving to another destination plan". They arrived at the hotel and went up to the room that they'd been in earlier that same night. Rachel had walked up to the window and stood there looking out into the night. He had walked up to her and put his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on her head. Something had been wrong, till this day he still don't know what. Because the second he was going to ask her, she had turned around, put her arms around his waist and smiled at him. They locked eyes and just stood there for a while. They both laid down on the bed and just laid there together, talking and being them. One thing led to another, and they woke up the next day tight in each other's arms. He loved the smell of her hair and the touch of her smooth skin against his. She was still sleeping when he'd woken up, gently he moved a little so he could brush through her hair easier. Rachel eventually woke up, he'd kissed her good morning and they stayed in bed until 11 am.  
They drove down to a small lunch restaurant and after another couple of hours he had driven her home. In the car she had started to freak out a little, realizing she hadn't told her dads about where she was last night. Even when they had arrived to her house she didn't want to get out of the car, worried about how the situation would turn out. It took a while before he made her believe him that everything would be okay, and if not, she would just call him and he'd be there. Obviously nothing happened since he didn't hear anything from her until later that night, and that was just because she felt like talking to him. GOD! Here he was again, thinking about her. And for a freaking long time to! If now Rachel was such a big part of his life that he couldn't stop thinking about her, why wasn't he with her?  
He stopped running. FOREST GUMP! That was the name of the movie, of that guy. Wait a second, where was he? He looked around to try and locate himself, mega fail.

Rachel wasn't really sure what was going on. But when she walked the New York streets with her dads that same night she realized that she hadn't been thinking about Finn in several hours. Tears were starting to develop in her eyes, but very smoothly she made them go away before her dads noticed anything.  
They arrived back at their hotel. Her dads asked if she was okay with them going down to the bar for just a short time. She made them very sure that he would be fine. The moment the door closed behind them though she broke down for the second time that day. Tears kept running down her cheeks. She laid on her bed crying and crying. She could've filled the whole swan lake with all her tears. She was thinking about him, missing him, longing for him to hug her again. Moments of protecting and comforting hugs reached her. Like that time in the beginning of junior year, the moment itself was very small, and relatively quick, and she wasn't too happy when she left, but it was still a moment she loved.  
It had been during their, so called "Britney week". Finn was off the football team and for once in a while she had felt truly sure that Finn wouldn't run off with some cheerleader. Then that guy who Ms. Pillsbury was seeing made them chew on that thing that would show in what condition their teeth was in. First of all, it was a big shock hers turned blue, she's still in a little bit of denial about just that part. On the other hand, if not she wouldn't have had that Brittney fantasy that made her dress up like a skanky school girl, which may have been a good thing with how Finn felt about it. She actually did understand what he meant. But then he got back on the football team again, and his cool factor went up, way higher than hers, which never was really high. She decided to change back to her old clothing, one part of her liked the idea of people looking at her, another part didn't, and honestly, she liked and felt more comfortable in her old clothes. When the final bell for the day ran she hadn't seen him at all that day. Since he now was back on the team and practice would start soon she decided to take a look in the boy's locker room, and there he was. There was something about him that shined, perhaps it had been his eyes, full of happiness. He had been pretty surprised when she said her first words, she has to pet herself on the back for deciding to go in there just at this moment, when Finn had been the only one there. Talk about awkward if he hadn't, she'd never thought about that before. But he was there and she noticed her change of clothes. They had talked before about feeling comfortable with the other one, and once again, she was now where she'd been before. Super worried that her lovely boyfriend would run off with someone else. Then she'd been a bit selfish and more or less told him that for her to feel safe and happy he couldn't be on the team. Thankfully he didn't listen to her, or he listened, but he stayed on the team, which was something that made him happy so she should have really been glad for him from that moment and on, not now when it pretty much could be too late. She did kind of freak out, but the thought about losing him did freak her out. So when he took that step towards her and pulled her into him, carefully putting her head against his chest, even though she only felt the plastic from the equipment, she didn't know what to feel or say. His embrace always made her feel safe and his stroking of her hair always calmed her down, but at this moment, she hadn't been sure what to do. He told her all this sweet things, but there had been too much going on inside her head to be able to focus on any of that. At the end she had told him that it all sounded very romantic, brushing his underarm and slightly pulling his hand away from her head, and she told him: Football or her. She was really thankful he was smart enough to keep them both.  
She really missed the embraces and wished she was with him right now, feeling like he was the only one able to make her feel better at this moment.  
She'd stopped crying and decided to pull herself together and try to take some well needed sleep. She went into the bathroom, did her best on her nighttime routine although her head was full of things. She put on her light pink pajamas and climbed into bed. She picked up her phone and realized she still hadn't called Kurt, she took a quick glance at the clock. It was almost 11.45. Worried to wake him up, and the feeling like now she actually could fall asleep she send him a quick text telling him that she was with her dads and that her night had been pretty busy with activities and thinking and that she would call him tomorrow. Pretty much the moment she heard to sound of the message being send she got a respond: _Thank God u're OK. Talk 2 u tomorrow. Love u Berry_


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Glee – all rights to Fox.  
Please tell me what you think**

**Authors Note: I will be going on a camp tomorrow (sat. 8/4) so I won't be able to update in a while. At this moment I'm not even sure if I'm going to be able to finish this chapter of. But since I feel like writing and being a little extra nice today, I'll do my absolute best and if I do not finish I'll repost the chapter when I'm done with it. So, needless to say; there will be a chapter coming now, it's either shorter than usual, and will stay so, or I'll write some more and publish the finished chapter.  
Please leave your reviews.**

*** - new part. This is now the finished chapter.**

He picked up his phone. Shit! It was staring to get late, and of course… no service. He looked up behind him to try and find a land mark. Score! He turned around and jogged a couple of yards and then turned to the right where he continued down the street. He stopped again for a second, looking down the street he was just about to cross. There, the third house on the right, a boy lived. He was the same age as Finn, kind of same situation for a long time with only one out of two parents. And maybe you could say they had what the other one didn't. Finn had a mom, he had a dad. They've been kind of… no, they were never really friends. Going in the same school and play in the same team doesn't make you friends. Throughout about half, a little bit more, of Finn's high school life they had not been on a friendly line. Not even freshmen year when he wasn't in Glee. They were kind of like those two people you see hang out together in group, but never talk to each other if not necessary. Then he joined Glee, and this guy had started throwing slushies at him and his fellow Glee-clubbers. Not only that, but he had started giving him a tough time, all the time. But it wasn't until junior year that Finn really started hating this kid. It wasn't until his stepbrother transferred, his brother had to be threatened to death, for him to realize what was going on. Still though, he's not completely sure what was going on.  
That wasn't the end of that story though. When august came, 2011, that kid had moved school. It wasn't really a secret, the reason he'd found out later but when everything went back to normal no one seemed to know anything about it. Time went on. Valentine's Day came and Kurt had told him and Rachel about this kid and how they had run into each other if that's how he could put it. Then, all of a sudden, this kid that had saved Finn from being tackled, who Finn has helped and hated, had tried to kill himself.  
He took one more glance toward David Kurowsky's house and then kept on going. And will you look at the odds? Just as him was running out of the neighborhood he was in, Mr. Kurowsky drives in and waves to Finn.  
He turns left and right, runs up hill and downhill. After another 15 minutes he's back home. When he walks in he see his mom trying to be discrete when she's putting the phone she was holding in a tight grip down on the coffee table like she'd never thought about using it. Using it to perhaps call the police if her son wouldn't come home soon, this was confirmed by Kurt later the same night.

Kurt was sitting on his bed looking at his phone. It was 11.30 and he, as well as Carole, had started to feel worry about Finn. But he did turn up, thank God. He kind of wanted to talk to him. He kind of wanted to talk to Rachel. No, he really wanted to talk to Rachel. As annoying as that little person could be at times, she was his best friend. He couldn't think of many people that have done so much for him as he has. He walked out in the hall to listen for the shower. Still on. This brother of his really didn't know what saving water meant. He stayed a little longer making sure it didn't sound like the water was running down on a still surface and then walked back to his room.  
He felt how his right thigh suddenly vibrated and the message signal came. He sat up from his stomach lying position and pressed the button on his phone. The screen light up and he saw he's gotten a text from no other than the diva herself. He quickly unlocking the phone, and the realized he must be looking like whenever Finn would get a text from her and try to break the record of fastest unlocking an iPhone. _Hi! I'm w/ my dads. I'm fine. Busy night w/ activities, thinking and just a lot. Sorry I didn't call u earlier. I call u tomorrow.  
_He felt so relieved the hear that she was fine, getting a bit worried when she didn't answer her phone and then didn't call him back. He quickly respond as he hears the bathroom door open and close.  
After a few short moments Finn walks over to his doorframe and leans against it, starring into nothing. He looks up and tries to meet his eyes before giving up and trying to say the words as calmly as possible not to make him go crazy.  
"I got a text from Rachel." Finn's starring into nothing disappeared quicker than ever and he looked at him. "She's fine." And with that, Finn nods his head and then sink down in the armchair standing between the door and Kurt's desk. He gives out an almost silent sight and looks at Kurt, hurt, fear and concern in his eyes.

She'd woken up at least four times the six hour of sleep she had gotten, every dream being about Finn. When she now woke up for the fifth time, she did not want to go back to sleep.  
Her dads were still sleeping when she walked into the bathroom and took a long shower. She got dressed and went into the living room where she walked over to the glass door that led out to a small balcony. She walked out and sat herself down in one of the big armchairs. She couldn't see far or much but breathing in the New York air and hearing the morning traffic was well enough for her. She picked up her phone and unlocked it, 3466, she still hadn't changed it. There had been several moments on the train where she'd been close to change to a password that wouldn't spell her ex-fiancés name on a phone, but after a very long time of the same code, she just couldn't figure out a new one. The background picture didn't make it better, their prom photo. Feeling it hurting too much she had erased it from the unlocked background, but there was nothing in her that wanted to erase it totally. That had been a beautiful night.  
She probably spend another hour out on the balcony before her dad popped his head out the door and asked if she was ready to go look at dorms. And off they went.

*Finn didn't know what he would say or feel at this moment. He was sitting in Kurt's room all confused, more confused than he's ever been. _"She's fine." _The two words echoed in his head. Rachel's fine, she's fine, his Rachel is fine. She's safe and she's fine. Or was she really? Getting the message from Kurt made him relax just a little, knowing she wasn't out all alone in the big city refusing to talk to anybody. On the other hand, how could he be sure that wasn't what she was doing and the whole thing with telling Kurt she was fine was just a cover up. Maybe he should try to get in contact with one of her dads. Not anything big and not a long conversation, but just something that would make him real sure that she was okay.  
Obviously Kurt had seen all the feelings going through his mind, because he sat on the edge of his bed, feet on the floor and asked him a so very simple question, but a question that would have a really hard answer:  
"Are you fine, Finn?" He looked up at his stepbrother and just stared at him. The first though coming to his mind was an angry no. Of course he wasn't fine. He missed the hell out of the only good thing in his life. He destroyed the only good thing in his life. He hurt her so badly. On the other hand he was a bit relieved, she was on her feet and she was going to be great in New York. She would do everything she ever wanted to do, and her dream will come true. Was Finn Hudson fine? Never in a billion years would he have thought that such a simple and everyday question could be so freaking hard to answer. He took a heavy sigh and then said:  
"Honest to God Kurt… I have no idea." And after that, the two boys sat silent in the bedroom. Both thinking about the same girl, one of them about his best friend, the other one about his ex best friend, ex girlfriend and ex fiancée. What was she doing? What was she thinking? What was she wearing? And yes, the last question was on both of their minds. Kurt hoping she would follow the fashion tips he had given her throughout the years and Finn going through all the clothes he himself had packed for her, together with her dads, not too long ago at all. Had Finn made a good choice or was Rachel annoyed about how poor he had done?

The three Berrys took a cab and went down the street to get to the dorms, or that was what Rachel thought. When they had walked out of the hotel and her dad had started waving for cabs she got a bit confused. The NYADA dorms weren't far away at all from where they were staying so why couldn't they just walk, or take the subway or something? Then they passed the campus.  
"Ehm… Dads" she started with a lowered voice "are we really going the right way? I mean, we just passed the campus." Her dad turned around and gave her a reassuring look and answered her:  
"Yes hun, we're going the right way. Believe me." The rest of the ride was quite. The cab stopped and her father paid the cabdriver. They walked out and stood on the sidewalk. Rachel looked around, she didn't really recognize the area but when she looked down the street she was almost completely sure she could see the very small park across the street from NYADA. Her dad took her arm gently and led her through the glass door. Both of her dads said hello to the man standing by a desk inside and they went to stay and wait for the elevator. Rachel tried desperately to read her parents facial expressions, but without any luck. They went inside the elevator and her father pressed number 6. The elevator stopped and they walked out. There were two doors, one to the right, and the other to the left. The right one had number 61 on it, and the left one 62, both numbers in gold colored metal. The room they were standing in now was light. The light gray stone floor and the beige walls looked very good together with the dark wooden doors, and the most amazing part, the giant lamp hanging from the very tall roof. Her dad walked over to the door with the number 62 and took a key out from his pocket. He put it inside the keyhole and turned it. He opened up the door and her father came to stand on the other side of the door frame, now they were both looking at her, obviously waiting for her to take the first steps inside. Still a little bit confused she took a deep breath and walked into the apartment. After taking just another step inside she stopped. She was standing in one of the most beautiful apartments she had ever seen. Right in front of her was a big living room, or that's all she could see. Relatively big windows making the room very light, a TV, one beige sofa and two matching armchairs and a white carpet, a beautiful lamp hanging right above the small table in the middle. To her left was a wall mirror and next to it a door, probably leading to the bathroom. On the other side of the smaller space was a small bureau with another mirror hanging over it, lamps on each side. To her right was another door, that one probably leading to the bedroom. Her father walked in carefully behind her and opened up the door to her left. He turned on the lights and white tile floor and walls could be seen. The bathroom was about the same size as hers had been back in Lima, with a shower/bathtub and all other bathroom stuff. Rachel was hypnotized. Her dads carefully led her through the small entry hall to the door that had been on her right. The light wooden floor and mint green walls calmed her down. She took some steps on her own inside to see a big king size bed with a brown cover and tons of pillows. Two windows, same size as in the living room lighting up the room a little extra also giving a perfect view of New York City, once again she was mesmerized by a beautiful lamp hanging right about the bed. Two mirror doors were leading into a closet, with plenty of room.  
They then continued to the living room. It was not very much more than what she had already seen, except for a big painting of New York City sky view. And there, in the corner, was a black piano and a guitar. She knew how to play piano, has known for as long as she can remember, but guitar…? Well, there's a time for everything isn't there? To her left now again was the kitchen. It was, as the rest of the place, very light and with a smaller kitchen island with high chairs around it. This was so amazing, but why were her dads showing her this place?  
"Do you like it?" she looked up at her father.  
"Yes, it's beautiful. But, why are we here?" Leroy took Rachel's hand and put the key in her hand.  
"You've been through so much, love. Auditions not going as you thought, friends in accidents, and… well, you've been through a lot, but you're here. You never gave up on your dream of New York. And, well, me and your father felt like rewarding you for it. Why live in a small dorm with someone you might not like, when you can have this place and have whoever you want over whenever you want to?" Rachel now understood what was really going on. She looked around her and then at her dads, then she flung her arms around them. She, Rachel Berry had her own apartment in New York City. She had the best dads ever! They had done all of this for her, how could she every repay them?  
The rest of the day was spent with making Rachel fell at home in her well, new home. Her dads went across the street to get some lunch for them when time came, and now when she was alone she took out her phone and dialed the number of the one person that would have to know about this.  
"Hi!"  
"Hey! We have to go video mode, I have to show you something."  
"Okay…"

**So this one is absolutely not finished, but I promise you more. I'll need some sleep in a bed now before I go out camping.  
Once again, please leave your comments and reviews ;) **

**Well, this is the whole chapter. I'm working on the next one. It ended up a bit shorter but I felt like I couldn't continue the story as I wanted to by continuing with the chapter. Thanks for the reviews, and keep them coming. Next chapter will be up soon, hopefully…**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine. All rights to FOX. **

"Oh my God, Rach! It's amazing! I thought you were going to live in one of the dorms at NYADA though, your dads change their minds?"  
"I know! I've only been in here for a couple of hours and I already feel like I've lived here for years. It really does feel like home. And yes, or well, I thought I was going to live in the dorms. I have no idea when my dads decided that I wasn't but honestly, I'm really glad they did. Really, Quinn, you have to come down here before all your classes start!"  
"Of course I'll come visit. I'm actually leaving Lima in about three days, maybe when I've figured some things out over at Yale I'll give you a call and come down."  
"That sounds great!" The two friends continued to talk for a while. When Rachel's dads walked in the door they said their goodbyes and promised to talk soon.  
Her dads started to cook dinner while she excused herself for a moment. She went into her bedroom and stood by the window. Once again she picked up her phone and dialed the number she would have dialed many hours ago.

Kurt jumped a little when something or someone mad a loud noise in the next room, Finn. He took a deep breath and continued to surf the web, trying hard to figure out what to do with his life now that NYADA is out of the picture. That's when his phone rang.  
"Well, hello New York City!" he said feeling a little warm when he heard her giggle on the other end.  
"What am I suppose to say to that? Hello Lima?" she laughed and so did he.  
"My God Rachel, how are you doing?" Rachel started telling him about how she thought they were going to go look at dorms and ended up in an apartment her dads had bought her. She promised to show him around later like she had done with Quinn and Kurt grinned when he heard that Rachel and Quinn had talked for a while. Who in their right mind would have thought those two would be friends one day?  
They didn't talk for long, Rachel's dads had lunch ready and Kurt was going to have lunch with Blaine. Before they hung up Rachel got serious and asked the one question that had probably been on her mind all too long:  
"How's Finn?" Kurt took a deep breath and heard how his stepbrother hit his fist in his desk.  
"Ups and downs like everyone else. He doesn't talk much, but he misses you."

This was not working out for him. Finn had woken up at 6 that morning and since then he'd been on the computer, trying desperately to figure out how to clear his father's name and at the same time figure his whole life out. He had several times that morning thrown things on the floor, hit his fist or head on his desk or other furniture or, in some extreme cases gotten up and thrown himself on the bed. He felt done. He didn't want this anymore. About 15 minutes ago he had heard Kurt's phone ringing and him answering something with New York. Realized that he probably was talking to Rachel he had moved to the wall that was separating his and Kurt's room. But Kurt must have moved as well, cause he had a really hard time figuring out what he was saying. He heard small words or names, like Quinn and apartment. Was he suppose to ask Kurt what they had been talking about? No, maybe not, that would make him look like a real jerk for listening to something he wasn't invited to hear. When he didn't hear anything more he went back to his desk. He continued to look up things and all of a sudden he was looking over New York City through Google Maps. He saw Central Park and Broadway and went through so many streets on street view trying to imagine Rachel living in one of the apartments. Maybe she didn't live in that neighborhood at all, but it was Rachel and it was her dads. Maybe he really should visit her.  
As it looked right now he was going to Ford Benning next week. He was going to be there until he was fully trained and then be stationed somewhere. If he did something extraordinary his father's name may be cleared. But let's sat he did clear the name, what would he do then? He didn't feel like the military person. Rachel taught him once how to dream, and his dream was acting. His dream was New York. His dream was her. So after the military, acting? Could that be his life? Moving to New York and start acting, or at least, take acting classes. Maybe he could make everything right with Rachel when he was there. He didn't expect her to wait for him. If she found someone she did. And as long as he made her happy and didn't hurt her he would be fine with it. Who is he kidding?! No, he wouldn't be fine with someone else being with Rachel. Just look at how he was acting when Puck and Jesse had had their arms around her. It made him crazy. Gosh, just that night at Rachel's house when spin the bottle had made her and Blaine kiss, that had been awful. He really shouldn't act like this though, and if Rachel did find someone else he just had to accept that.  
Was this his plan then? Military, when he was done, he was going to New York. Yes, that's the plan, done! How long would military be though? Until he's done something special? That could take forever.

Rachel walked into the kitchen to eat with his fathers. They ate and talked about what classes she would sign up for. When they were all done they decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.

Time had went by so fast. It was Sunday morning and Rachel was sitting in her apartment drinking tea and watching the news. She had just begun her fourth week in her apartment, in New York City. Her dads had left about two weeks ago to let her get settled for real on her own. It had gone well, once they had left she had gone out to replace some of the decorations that she didn't like, but knew her dads loved. Quinn was coming down to visit this afternoon and Rachel had been up all last night planning three amazing days.  
Over all Rachel had been doing really well. She talked to Quinn and Kurt quite often. She had talked a little bit with Tina before she went on a family vacation and had checked in with Mercedes and Santana. Rachel herself hadn't heard anything from the guys, well except for Kurt and in some occasions Blaine, but from what everyone else said they were doing great, or most of them did great, she hadn't heard anything about Finn.  
She continued watching the news, nothing was going on. In a city this big with so many international relations, there should be big news all the time, but now. She was almost sure that the Lima news would have more to say than New York, and that was for sure, Lima did not have many interesting news to come with.  
She finished her tea and went to put the cup in the dishwasher before she changed into her gym clothes took her bag with change of clothing, a water bottle, wallet, phone and keys and walked out of the door.  
There was a gym not far from her apartment. On a normal day like this it would take her only a few minutes getting there. She walked out of the front door out on the path walk. It was typical New York summer weather outside, light grey sky, humid and warm, the sun reaching through the clouds in some spots. Rachel started walking to the gym and when she turned the corner she walked straight into someone. Yeesh! These tourists really need to learn how to walk in New York City. She looked up to say her sorry, but got caught off when she saw the familiar face and the brown hair.  
"Jesse?"  
"Hi! Going somewhere?" Rachel was still in shock and couldn't say anything. What was he doing here?  
"Ehm… yeah. To the gym. Live just around the corner." God, why did she have to tell him where she lived? Change the topic, now! "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be training you Vocal Adrenaline until they puke?" He laughed.  
"Why would I do that? My kids are awesome and like the best, but why would I make them puke. That would just mean more work for me."  
"Was it because they're so awesome and 'like the best' that we won nationals over you?" she asked now smiling a little feeling the tension drop.  
"Very funny Berry. Actually, since you are so interested to know…"  
"I'm really not."  
"… I finally got in."  
"Got in where?"  
"NYADA." Rachel's jaw dropped.  
"WHAT?!"  
"Yes. I got in. I felt like now was the right time for me to take some time a study. Go to a school that may be able to teach me something, I mean, I already know most of what performing is, but a little help may not hurt you. And besides, I may be so great everyone will look up to me and I can help them through this hard thing we call life." Rachel starred at him in disbelief. If Jesse St. James wanted to get into NYADA he would have applied right after he graduated and if he didn't get in he would never try again. Then again, if he did apply and didn't get in, why was he standing here now and telling her he was. "Okay, fine." He said, like he'd been reading her mind. "Can we take it where no one will hear us?" Rachel laughed.  
"Really Jesse?"  
"Please…" They walked into a small café right where they stood and sat down at one of the tables in the corner. "I didn't get in after senior year. I applied but failed." Rachel looked at him, no surprise at all, which made him come off guard a little. "Madame T was at my audition as well, and well, after that one fail I didn't want to do it all over again, I'm better than that." Rachel rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, I mean. I didn't want to feel the same failure feeling again." She nodded. "So, when I ran into her in Chicago and I knew your audition didn't go the way you wanted it to, I talked to her." He paused and took a deep breath. "I told her what an amazing person and performer you are. And all of a sudden it was like she knew who I was. After a few weeks I got a letter from NYADA asking me to do a second audition to see if I've improved. Obviously I had, because another couple of weeks went by and I got an acceptance letter. Apparently there was someone who dropped off and they went through a list of kids who's been auditioning earlier but didn't get in. Guess I was the lucky one this time." _Guess you were _was Rachel's only thought, thinking that the lucky one very well could've been Kurt. "Look, Rachel. I know you think I took Kurt's place, but I didn't know anything until I got here and went looking on the dorms, that's when they told me someone had dropped. I know you would rather have him here than me, but right now, I'm the only one you got. I'm going to leave you here now, you go to the gym and whenever you feel like talking to someone, just as friends, call me." And with that he left a small paper with his number on it and left. Rachel picked it up and looked at it, in a short amount of time, she left as well.

It had been so freaking hard to leave everything three weeks ago, but now here he was. First day in three weeks when he didn't have anything planned. They had gotten this one Sunday off, it was the first, and probably the last. The training was so hard. They were woken up at 5 am, and fell asleep the second they were allowed some sleep. Two nights now they had been woken up at different times for drills, not a favorite. He was lying in his bunk bed, top, looking at a picture. It was a bit dirty and folded in some places. Finn didn't know if it was normal for him to act like this, or if it was fair to her, but since he left Lima he's been carrying the same photo that was in his locker his whole senior year at McKinley. The one part of the photo he was keen not to be destroyed in anyway was where the eyes were. Those beautiful eyes he could just drown in, the dark brown eyes that was glimmering in the photo. She didn't know it yet, but the moment he was done with what he had to do he was coming right to her, no matter where she was or what she was doing, and that, the feeling of knowing he was coming to her, was what kept him going when he felt like he couldn't.  
Not too many of the guys had seen the photo, but the ones who had congratulated him on getting such a beauty. None of them knew the whole story. None of them knew what was really going on right now. Many of them were talking about why they joined the military and all these things about their personal life. Finn on the other hand had kept everything to himself. He didn't tell anyone why he joined, he didn't tell them where he grew up, he didn't tell them about his family, friends, high school or love life. Cause honestly. If someone made him tell them about his life like all the other guys had done here, he would keep on going for forever. Hell, they could make a TV show about his dramatic life, and God, he couldn't talk about his own life without mentioning things about his friends too, and that, that would make a really long story, a really long drama show. And that, that is why he kept his life to himself. Besides, why do people care?  
He jumped off the bed and decided to walk around the camp, or at least, as far as he could come. He needed some fresh air without someone screaming commands at him. He thought about his mom, Burt, Kurt, Puck, Rachel, all these people that meant so much to him. And even though they didn't want to leave his mind, he didn't feel homesick. He missed them, of course he did, but not in that way he had when he went on summer camp when he was eight and cried because he missed his mom and finally got send home. No, that wasn't how he felt now. Maybe it was like this Rory had been feeling, you miss your friends and family like crazy, but you don't want to go back home, cause there's something with the place your in right now that feels like your home as well. Now, Finn didn't really feel like the guys here was his family like Rory had said about Glee Club, but something made him stay. Maybe it was the fact that he knew he had to do this, it was the only way that he could clear his father's name. It was the only way to get back to Rachel.  
The day went on and dinner came. He didn't feel like sitting by the guys he usually sat by, most likely because they were talking about all the girls they had met today and everything they had done. He had listened to the "last night" edition during lunch. He sat down by an empty table and started picking his food.  
"May I join you?" Finn looked up to see a guy, about his own age, maybe a few years older, standing there with his dinner.  
"Sure" he answered and gestured his hand. The guy sat down and reached his right hand over to Finn. He took it.  
"Tom"  
"Finn" the two young men sat in silent for a while. Tom reached into his front pocket to pick up a napkin he had put there, when he pulled it out something flew down on the table. It was a picture, about the same size as his own of Rachel, and that wasn't the only thing that was similar.

**Please leave your reviews. They mean a lot, if you have any ideas, leave them as well.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine. All rights to FOX.**

**AN: I'm probably going to shorten down the chapters. I don't have the time to write as long once anymore now with school and everything, and I feel like I never post anything if I'm going to continue these long chapters. We'll see.**

It had been a long morning, but now she was standing by the coffee shop across the street from the Central Station. In just a few minutes Quinn's train would arrive, and in another couple of minutes she would walk out the glass doors. If Rachel had been excited to see her friend when she woke up this morning, it's nothing compared to the feeling she felt right now. At this moment, it wasn't an excitement, it was a need. With the Jesse situation and well… maybe that was it really, but it felt like they had so much to talk about.  
Rachel glanced at the big clock, Quinn's train would be arriving now. And she must have been correct, because in just a few minutes she walked through the doors and the moment hers and Rachel's eyes met she ran towards her. The two friends hugged each other tight and Rachel kept on thinking how this could've happened. How could she, Rachel Berry, stand here in New York City hugging the life out of cheer captain Quinn Fabray? So, it made no sense, but here they were, and Rachel was so happy.  
"It's so good to see you, Rach!" Quinn let out when they pulled apart.  
"Good to see you too." Rachel got out. They walked a few streets down and then took the subway closer to her apartment. When they reached the door they walked in and up to her apartment. Rachel showed Quinn the apartment, in person this time, and they dumped her luggage before they decided to walk around in New York.  
The two friends walked along Broadway and decided to go for some coffee at Starbucks on 5th. They ordered and sat down in the corner of the shop. For a while there was only silence. Quinn was starring out the window, Rachel at her coffee.  
"I saw Jesse…" Rachel said, quietly, still starring at her cup. Quinn turned her attention to her friend.  
"Jesse? Jesse St. James?" she whispered leaning forward. Rachel nodded. "Well, what did he say? Wait a minute, what is _he _doing here?!"  
"Calm down, Quinn." Rachel took a sip of her coffee. "I ran into him on my way to the gym." For a moment she was considering telling Quinn that Jesse now was going to NYADA as well and how he'd hadn't been accepted the first time. But they were talking about Jesse, and whenever the New Directions were talking about Jesse, it was never good. Rachel knew how much he hated the fact that he hadn't been accepted in the first place, and by her telling one New Directioner, everyone would know.  
"What aren't you telling me?" Quinn knew her too well, how could that be possible?  
"The reason he got in was because someone dropped." That wasn't a lie, it was the truth. No one had to know that this wasn't why she had looked all puzzled before. Luckily Quinn had gone with it.  
"Someone dropped? So, Jesse's place could've been like… Kurt's?" Rachel nodded.  
"That was my first though too." There was a moment of silence.  
"So, what do you think is going to happen now?"  
"What do you mean? With me and Jesse? Nothing!" Rachel starred at her friend. Did she truly believe that she would go back to Jesse now just because they were going to the same school. There was no way! Yes, when they'd met in Chicago she'd noticed a change in him, a good one, but no, she was not going back to St. James. Of course she would talk to him, maybe go take a coffee after school or any other "friend stuff". But Rachel Berry was not going back to be Jesse St. James girlfriend.

In 12 hours the group of men and women that was sitting in the same room, eating dinner right now, be out training until they puke they're guts out. They would be pushed harder and harder, blood, sweat and tears. But now, right now, at this very moment, they were all laughing and talking to each other. Well, laughing maybe wasn't what everyone was doing, but one thing was sure, they were all getting to know the person next to them.  
Still pretty much alone sat two men, both very young. Since the photo had flown out of Tim's pocket there had been silence. The photo was lying on the table, front up. There was a girl, brown hair that went just below her shoulders and light brown eyes. Tom was just about to grab the photo and put it back into his pocket when Finn reached out and stopped him. This confusing and surprising situation left Tom with a question mark written all over his face. Finn reached down into his own pocket and took out a photo himself. The exact same size and put it next to Tom's. The long brown hair, a beautiful smile and those magical eyes were facing him. The two men smiled small smiles, before they look up at each other.  
"High School crush?" Tom asked.  
"Guess you can call it that… Same for you?"  
"Complicated story, long story." Tom said and starred at his picture. Finn laughed a little.  
"I promise you, my story is more complicated, and definitely longer." They both laughed now.  
"Okay then. Well…" Tom took a deep breath before continuing. "First of all, I'm from Burlington, Vermont. I went to this pretty big High School. I played baseball and basketball, captain of both. The first day of my junior year I ran into this girl. She was a junior as well but I'd never seen her before. She was really shy and apologized like a hundred times for bumping into me. She wasn't really one of the popular girls, she didn't do anything in particular. She wore clothes that was well… maybe not the most fashionable, but I didn't care. Her eyes were so amazing, I just couldn't stop starring. She ran away to class before I got a name or anything. Guess what!? After last period, I was running late for practice and guess who I pretty much tackle down on the way to my locker, this girl" He pointed at his photo. Finn smiled. "So I thought 'Hey, here's my chance' and I did exactly what she'd done, and apologized like a hundred times. That was the first time I made her laugh. I got her name, Angela, and she told me she had to go to a SAT meeting. Smooth as I am I told her to wait outside the east entry for me and I could give her a ride home." Finn laughed. This guy kind of reminded him of a mix of Puck and Sam, the good parts of them. "So practice ended and there she was. Here came the first time I was really dumb, I asked where she was from, and hear this – she's been going to the same school as I have since middle school. Anyway, we kept on talking the whole ride home and I realized that this girl wasn't just some girl in school who had amazing eyes, she was a really nice person and I actually liked her. Good think Homecoming isn't too far away from the start of term and I managed to ask her to go with me. Sure I got tons of crap from the guys on my team and all the cheerleaders, but hey, I was in love. And after that… well, we just kept on to each other. She started to change a bit throughout junior year and senior year, you know, finding her own style that was a little more grown up and she started to open up and got a lot of new friends. Then she got in to college in Boston and I didn't, so I decided to go and do something with my life and join the army. I come from a military family so wasn't really any shocking news for anyone. So, me and Angela decided to say our goodbyes about a month ago. We went to the airport together and made sure to book flights that were departing at about the same time. The last thing we did was giving each other these photos as a promise that we will always be there for each other, no matter where or what. I don't know how long we can keep this long distance thing, and especially when, or if, I get departed, but we decided not to think too much about the future and just about how amazing life is just at this very moment." He paused and looked very calm for someone who just talked about the love of his life who's several miles away. Finn was pretty sure already he wouldn't be as calm about his own story. "So, Finn, what's your story?"

After about an hour or so Quinn and Rachel walked out of the Starbucks shop and out on 5th. They walked north towards Central Park and walked around, talking memories from last time they were here.  
"So how's Yale? You haven't said anything about it yet." Rachel asked as they walked along the path.  
"It's great! I mean, I've only moved into my dorm and met a few people in the corridor. My roommate is something… special." Quinn said a laughed. Rachel looked at her, also smiling.  
"What do you mean 'special'?"  
"Well…" she said and stopped. Then she laughed again. "God, Rach, if it was anyone else I'm not even sure I could tell them this story, but because it's you and you have the biggest imagination and the ability to really picture what I went through I might just tell you because…"  
"Oh my God, Quinn, just tell me already!"  
"Okay, fine. So I came to the campus and walked up to my building. Everything seemed normal and nice, you know, just like I thought it would be. I get my dorm number and walk up to it. On the way up I meet a few people, nothing big, just like a small introduction, all were freshmen. Then I come to my door, are you ready for this?" Quinn looked at Rachel, amusement in her eyes. Rachel nodded and with her eyes begged her to continue. "You sure?"  
"Stop this! Tell me or I'll…"  
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you" Quinn said in a made up voice that sounded terrified. "I open up the door and this petit brunette jumps at me and starts talking, like really, really fast. She has already decorated more or less to whole room with all these different posters, photos and stuffed animals. Her name is Amber and she's crazy, and actually, she reminds me of you." Rachel looked at her.  
"What, petite and talks fast?" she said and laughed, knowing this was very true.  
"Haha, maybe! I was scared at first, but then I thought of you, and how I now consider you one of my absolute, if not my only, best friend." The two friends looked at each other and then Rachel jumped Quinn and gave her a big hug.  
"Just don't replace me, promise?" Rachel said and put her pinky out towards Quinn. Quinn did the same and they did a little pinky swear in the middle of Central Park.  
"Promise."

For the first time since he'd sent her away he was now going to talk about her, really talk about her, not just a small talk with Kurt, this was real. He was going to tell this guy he'd met just a few minutes ago their whole story. From first eye contact to the last. Was he really ready? He doubted it. What if he would start sobbing in the middle of it. He's at a freaking military training camp, he can't cry here. He will look like a loser before training even start. Finn looked down at the photo on the table, than up on Tom.  
"I guess I start with the background then. I'm from Lima, Ohio. I went to William McKinley High School, not a very big one. Actually it's pretty small. Since freshmen year I was on the football team, basketball team and baseball team. During my sophomore year I was captain of the football team, I was also dating the head cheerleader." A memory came up to him. A memory of him standing there in front of most student body, the teachers and some parents, telling them how Mr. Shue had changed his life, and he really had. He was the one making him realize that he was with the wrong girl. "Are you ready for some real crazy stuff?" Tom nodded. "We had this club, Glee club, you know, singing, dancing that sort of stuff. The teacher, I don't know, he got fired or something, so my Spanish teacher stepped in to take it over. And I'm telling you, this teacher is passionate about his job, best one I've ever had."  
"Hold your horses, are you about to tell me that you joined this club and started singing and dancing?!"  
"Hey! It's my story!" The both laughed. "So this teacher, Mr. Shuester, or Shue… Anyway, he put up a list you could sign if you wanted to join. Not many did. So, he somehow decided to go to the football team and tell us to join. You think anyone even considered signing their names? Well… I might have a little, but nothing you could do or say to anyone. After practice the same day I'd been talking to coach so I was all alone in the showers, and of course, I was singing." Tom starred at him and nodded.  
"Who doesn't sing in the shower?" he said and waved his hand for Finn to go on.  
"Well, apparently I wasn't all alone. Mr. Shue had gone into the locker room to see if anyone of us had signed or names, no one had. And this that I'm about to tell you right now was something I got to hear from him just a few days before graduation, anyway. Mr. Shue heard me sing and wanted me in the club but didn't know how. So he put drugs in my locker that he later 'found' and wanted to talk to me about, I still have no idea where he got it from… Whatever, he said that he could either put this on my record that would probably destroy my chances for a football scholarship or I could join Glee. Well, what would you've done? I joined, and this girl with an amazing voice was in the club too. We did like a number, and she was pretty scary. For a while it was pretty hard for me being in this club, all the guys constantly teasing me and all. But things changed. My then girlfriend and her two followers joined the club and later so did some of my teammates." Tom looked a little shocked.  
"So now everyone is in this club?"  
"Pretty much…"  
"I now believe you when you told me it was a long story." Finn laughed.  
"You want me to stop?"  
"Oh no!" God, this guy reminded him a little of Kurt now. It was starting to freak him out a bit.  
"Okay, so I knew I needed help with my singing. So I asked the girl with the amazing voice, Rachel, to help me. When I got to the auditorium she'd laid out a little picnic, super cute, and that's where the first kiss happened." He said and pointed at the picture.  
"Hold on. You kissed… Rachel?" Finn nodded and Tom continued "when you still has a girlfriend?" Finn stopped, he'd never thought about that before, but it was the truth.  
"I guess…" Tom laughed at him and then urged him to continue once again. "Then you know, nothing really happened until a day came when my then girlfriend ignored me and when I finally confronted her why she told me she was pregnant." Tom's jaw dropped. But Finn ignored it knowing it would keep on dropping when he continued the story. "After that I kind of stopped caring about Rachel, but then it came out that I wasn't the father, my best friend was." Tom's jaw dropped again and Finn made sure not to tell him that he and Quinn never did it. That was something that could be saved for another time. "After that… well I guess me and Rachel got into a little thing. But then the two cheerleaders in the club that hadn't been my girlfriend decided to be all like over me and stuff. Rachel also meet this really talented guy from another school, who turns out to be a jerk but that's later. So the start of our relationship isn't very good and I guess we basically break up after not too many days. Since we were acting like kids and just wanted to make each other jealous all the time, or you know… she and the guy I was talking about got into a thing and I wanted to make her jealous, then it just kept on going so I guess I started it all and…"  
"Hold up… slow down now. You two got together, then broke up. She found someone else and now you were jealous?"  
"Right…"  
"Okay, so what happened next?"

**Please leave your reviews.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine. All rights to FOX.**

On a bench sat two girls in their late teens. The day was starting to come to its end and the big park began to feel empty.  
"Have you met any new people here yet? Jesse doesn't count." Quinn asked as she was watching a lonely swan in the lake.  
"No, not really. I've said hi to the family below me a couple of times, but not more than that." Silence. "They're really nice. Emily and Daniel are both in their mid twenties, and their beautiful baby boy Ethan is one and a half." More silence. They were now both watching the lonely swan in the lake, on the other side was two beautiful swans and a baby one too. It was pretty much her life. She actually saw the three member family several times a day and always felt something break inside of her thinking that she might never get that. Tears began to roll down her face. Quinn must have read her mind because the next second her arm was around her and she kept on telling her:  
"It's going to be okay, Rach. You'll be there one day." Then she started crying as well. Rachel turned towards her and looked at her.  
"Quinn…" she refused to look up and instead she hugged her tiny brunette friend harder than ever before while she tried to contain her crying. Rachel hugged her back and there they sat. Two Ohio girls, one was about to start her first term at Yale, the other one at NYADA, sat on a bench in the almost dark Central Park crying their eyes out, both thinking that they were the lonely swan.  
The night went on. Rachel and Quinn went to dinner at a smaller restaurant close to the park. After dinner they walked back to the apartment and settled in front of the TV in their pajamas. There was a movie on, but none of them had the energy to figure it out and after about half an hour they were both sleeping.

Tom stared at him again. He had just told him the whole Jesse story, like every part of it. He had also talked about everything with Puck and all that drama and was now telling his new friend what happened in New York.  
"…so when the song was done I just kissed her." Tom laughed.  
"Wow, just like that, in front of everyone?!" Finn laughed too thinking back at it.  
"Yeah, what you haven't seen the YouTube video?"  
"There's a… no way! I need to look that up."  
"Pervert!" And the two young man busted out in laughter. Finn continued to tell the long and famous Finchel story and talked about the summer between junior and senior year and how they kept having these very small fights every now and then but always ended up in each other's arms.  
"Oh, and then our teacher came in to class one day and told us he was going to propose to his girlfriend and we all started to try and figure out a way to help him. He actually asked me to come with him and look for a ring and I did and all, and that's when he asked me to be his best man. And, man, it was a lot going on around this. My mom told me that my dad didn't die in Iraq as I'd been told my whole life, apparently he became addicted to some drug when he got back home from there and died from an overdose. It was around this time I decided to propose to Rachel and I did and I would say I did it pretty good, only problem was that it like took her…"  
"You proposed! You hadn't even graduated High School and you proposed to her… wow."  
"Yeah, I did, I loved her, hell I still do and nothing is ever going to change that." Tom nodded and urged him to go on with the story. "After a few days she said yes and we decided to get married after graduation, then Valentine's day came and we decided to move it to May. And then a… friend… of ours tried to commit suicide so we decided that we wanted to live our lives and decided to get married on the coming Saturday."  
"But you didn't…?"  
"No, we were going to. You know everyone was there and all, but we were missing one friend, and it meant great deal to Rachel that she would be there, she had kind of not been very happy about the whole getting married at 18 thing, but finally gave in. Anyway, on the way to our wedding she got in an accident. We were all telling Rachel that we needed to go on which led to her texting Quinn, the friend, a lot and when she finally decided that she needed to pick up her phone and answer the next she entered an intersection and a truck came right at her." For what felt like the millionth time Tom was sitting with his mouth open, this small group of people certainly had an interesting High School life.  
"What happened to her? I mean is she okay?"  
"Yeah, well, she was in a wheelchair for a while but for all I know she's fine now. I kind of went to prom with her and saw her stand and walk which kind of pissed me off since I guess that was a reason I went with her in the first place…"  
"Hold up. You didn't go to prom with your fiancé?"  
"No, I went with my ex cause we were both royalty and then Rach didn't want to go, which I kind of understand…"  
"That sounds kind of… not very nice"  
"Oh no, you don't understand, it gets better. See, I realized it was really fucking stupid of me to go with Quinn and not Rachel so after I kind of tried to force Quinn to stand up and almost knocked another kid and our cheer coach, who's crazy by the way, almost kicked me out I went over to the hotel where I knew Rachel and the others where. When I got there Rachel was just about to show everyone her dress and I was completely blown away. So after some convincing I made her, my brother and his boyfriend come with me back to prom. My best friend and my other friend didn't want to leave but showed up later. And the night ended with me as prom king and Rachel prom queen after Quinn and this other friend of ours decided that she should be… I guess. Anyway, it was amazing." Tom smiled.  
"You seemed to have ended your High School life pretty good." Finn smiled and closed his eyes.  
"It depends on how you see it…"  
"Oh, come on then, finish the story."  
"Well…"Finn started to talk about just some everyday things that happened and how Rachel chocked on her NYADA audition. "… and then came Nationals. We went to Chicago and had an amazing time, and we won." He continued with telling Tom about how Kurt hadn't gotten in to NYADA, how himself hadn't gotten in to the Actor's Studio and how Rachel had gotten in to NYADA but refused to go and insisted on staying in Lima for a year. "… so on the day we were going to get married I picked her up from her house, everything as it should be, except I had packed her suitcase for her with one of her dads the night before and had it in my trunk. And instead of going to the chapel I drove to the train station where everyone was waiting. Before we got out of the car I told her that she was going with the 4.15 to New York and that I was joining the army. Then we walked to everyone else and I sat her on the train…" Finn's voice was getting lower he fingered with the photo of Rachel and looked at her big brown eyes and the beautiful smile of hers. Tom's hand came upon his.  
"You did the right thing though…"  
"I do hope so."

It was time for their last meal together before Quinn set off from New York to Yale. They were sitting in Rachel's apartment eating pasta and talking about everything.  
"I'm so glad you came…" Rachel almost whispered when the two girls were quite.  
"I'm glad I am too… It's been really fun and I just… I can't believe how amazing you are Rachel. I just wished I would have realized that earlier." They both laughed.  
"Better late than never, right?"  
"Right!"  
After dinner they started to pack up everything and went out to crap a cab. Quinn's flight would depart at 9.14 from Newark. Quinn had told Rachel the whole day that she didn't have to come with her to the airport since it wasn't the closest airport, but Rachel had insisted on going with her and honestly Quinn didn't mind at all.  
They talked about everything on the way to the airport and they both noticed how the driver kept looking back at them through the mirror. When they arrived at the airport he asked if they could help them with anything else.  
"No we're fine, thank you." Rachel answered.  
"But you're going back to Manhattan right?" he asked and looked at Rachel. Rachel and Quinn exchanged looks and Quinn said:  
"She is, but I'm not leaving for a while so we're just gonna hang out for a while before."  
"Well then, I'll be right here when you're ready to leave."  
"Great" said Rachel and the two girls walked in through the glass doors.  
"There's no way you're riding with that guy back to your apartment!"  
"Oh come on Quinn, he was super hot!"  
"What the hell are you on!" Quinn stopped in the middle of the airport and Rachel started to laugh louder than usual. "I'm kidding Q! You're right, I'm not going back with that guy, if I get into that cab again I won't come back out."  
"Don't say that Rach! Now I'll be worried about you for the rest of my life. You seriously need to find someone to look out for you here."  
"I'm fine without a lifeguard Quinn, I promise." They both hugged each other and Quinn went through the security.  
Rachel started to walk out the glass doors again but before she came outside she saw the cabdriver standing right outside. Okay, how would she do this smooth enough? She looked around and saw one of the security people passing the glass doors. She quickly went through them and walked next to the guard and continued walking over till she reached the first cab in the line. The driver nodded at her and opened up the back door. She looked at his driver license next to the wheel. She recognized it, a lot. She smiled, this was the same driver as had driven her and her dads to her apartment the very first time. And it wasn't until now she realized they were already on their way back in to Manhattan and she hadn't even told him where she was going. As if he read her mind:  
"Don't worry, I know the way, and it's a closer one to, not like those other ones other drivers take to fool the tourists out of money." Rachel was so confused and maybe even a little scared.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Glee's not mine. All rights reserved.**

**AN: Finchel eye to eye moments are on the way!**

"Don't recognize me, huh?" the cab driver asked as they turned left onto 4th. Rachel shook her head and looked out the window. "Not surprised, most people never pay any attention to who drives them around." Rachel looked up to see the man in the front seat through the mirror. She did recognize this man, but from where? She thought really hard, looking back at everything that she'd been doing since she got to New York. That's it!  
"You were the driver who drove me and my dads to my apartment, right?!"  
"Right you are."  
"I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you at first, I…"  
"Oh stop it. I'm surprised you remember at all. So how's everything working out for you?" Rachel was still in a bit of a shock. She'd hear from everywhere that New York cabdrivers were either the super unfriendly people or the super friendly people, she guessed this guy was one of the super friendly ones. Or he was just getting all the information he needed to start stalking her like one of those crazy people she saw on TV a few days ago.  
"Pretty well thank you." She answered and looked back out the window.  
"I'm glad. Well, here we are." the driver said as he parked in front of her place. "Just let me know if you need anything." He said as he gave back the change and a card with his number and name on.  
"I'm sorry sir, but I think you gave me the wrong change." Rachel said as she counted the amount of money she had in her hands, it was more than it was suppose to be.  
"Don't worry about it. I don't charge the people who I've driven more than once the same amount as my other customers." Rachel smiled at him and thanked him again before she stepped out of the cab. She waved back at the man before she walked through the glass doors and to the elevator.

It was freaking 4 am. The loud sound of someone screaming and a loud noise woke up the 30 men sleeping in bunk beds. Finn almost fell out of his bed at the sound of the alarm going off. They all jumped up and put on their uniforms as fast as they all could and then ran out of the building and lined up outside. It was pitch dark and you couldn't see anything. Then came the familiar yelling and all of a sudden they were all down on the ground making push-ups.  
After about two hours they were all back in the building and cleaning off the mud from their boots. Right when Finn was about to put down one of his boots on the floor and put it back on he noticed something on the floor. He picked up the small paper and turned it to see the front of it. He'd seen it before, not long ago at all. He looked around to find Tom and found him three chairs away. Finn cleaned his other boot and put them both on before walking over to his friend.  
"Hey! Think you dropped something." Tom looked up confused.  
"Dude, what are you talking about?!" he laughed as he put on his boots. Finn pulled out the photo and gave it to him, the photo of his girl.  
"Found it over by me. Dunno how it got there but I thought, if she means as much to you as Rachel does for me, you'll really want this."  
"Wow, thanks man." They smiled at each other before Finn walked back to his. They'd been told that breakfast was going to be served in half an hour, 10 minutes left. He sat in his bed and started to wonder why he wasn't starving. Usually he was almost dying of hunger from the moment he woke up. But now nothing, nothing but emptiness, and not the one that could be healed by eating tons of food. He picked up the photo of Rachel for like the hundredth time since he got here and traced her face with his finger. God he missed her. Her voice, her warmth, her magical eyes, long legs and beautiful hair, he missed every single part of her, even the sometimes annoying once. He heard how the other men in the room started moving towards the door and he did the same after he'd put the photo back in his left side breast pocket and made sure it was safe there, right above his heart.

"Dad, listen to me! There's nothing decided yet but I need to get away from here for a while. This doesn't mean I will stay there forever, just for a couple of months or so." Kurt was running around his room trying to find everything he'll need for his adventure.  
"But, how do I know what you'll be up to or what happens to you. Kurt, I can't just let you go away several hours away from here without knowing that you'll be truly safe." Burt leaned against the door frame and looked sad at his son. Kurt stopped for a moment and looked at his dad.  
"You'll know what I'm up to and what happens to me. Not only because you'll be calling and texting me all the time, but also because I will let you know, and I promised Blaine to keep him updated as well, and besides Carole is way too worried about how Rachel's doing so she'll be calling me too and ask me all about her. Perhaps I should just give Carole Rach's number now." The last part he said mostly to himself as he continued to run around his room. "I really, really want this dad. I need it, I love you but like I said, I just can't stay here in Lima and not doing anything much longer and I know New York is where I'm supposed to be. At NYADA or not, Rachel's right, just being in the city and living a life there, it opens up your mind." Burt looked at his son, now more proud than sad.  
"You're gonna go far kid." He said and smiled. "When's your departure?"  
"Oh… ehm…" Kurt started to look through all the papers on his desk trying to find his flight information after being in a bit of shock after his father's sudden turn of emotions. "4pm, so I need to leave at like… 2?" Burt nodded.  
"Well, let me know when you're ready and I'll drive you."  
"Thanks dad" Kurt smiled at his dad and closed his carryon.  
At 2 pm the two Hummels left the Hummel-Hudson house and headed to the airport.  
"We're here." Kurt looked at the big glass doors leading into the check in. They had decided in the car that Burt would leave after Kurt stepped out of the car and head back home. "You sure you'll be okay now?"  
"Yes dad, I'll be fine." Burt nodded and Kurt stepped out of the car and grabbed his carryon from the truck. He waved goodbye to his dad and promised to call once he landed and then walked into the airport.  
Kurt checked in and walked though security. He picked up his phone and texted his dad that so far everything was going well. He was thinking of calling Rachel and telling her that he'd be in New York in a few hours but thought about how happy she always looked when someone surprised her and decided he would make her real glad after everything. Instead he send a text to Blaine.

It was time for the last scheduled training. After a while at the camp Finn and the other guys had learned that there are the scheduled training and the unscheduled that could happen at pretty much any time. Like he had been excepted he didn't eat much for breakfast, he ate until he felt like he was going to puke knowing he needed the energy and did the same when lunch came. Something was off but he didn't know what. Could it be the sickness after being away from the love of your life for too long, maybe he was thinking of talking to Tom about it but figured he'll wait.  
Just a few more hours left, then, straight after dinner when they were a loud to do pretty much whatever they wanted he would go and call his mom real quick, telling her that he was fine, even though he maybe wasn't, and then he would go straight to bed.

"Last call for New York!" Kurt stood in line for boarding and starting to get really annoyed. What was taking so long!? After a way to long time in the line he finally got his boarding pass scanned and could walk through the gate. He still couldn't understand why they didn't board in zones, it's one thing that they do it in like Europe where it actually works, but not boarding with zones in Ohio? What were they thinking?  
He looked out the small window as they flew over Lima, in a few hours he'll be in the best city in the world with his best friend. God he missed her. Kurt missed Rachel, he missed Finn, Quinn, Mercedes, Mike, hell he even missed Puck and Santana. Seeing Rachel again all glowing in New York would be wonderful, he would finally be able to just talk about anything with his best of friends. It wasn't like he couldn't talk to Blaine about everything, but sometimes it just felt like he didn't want to listen but refused to say something. Kurt knew that if Rachel didn't want to listen to him, she would straight up tell him and they would start talking about something completely different. The seatbelt sign went off and Kurt picked up his phone and put the earplugs in his ears. New York – here I come.

Rachel was sitting in her apartment with a big cup of tea in her small hands in one of her windows looking out over the beautiful city. There were some moments when heights really freaked her out. Like a Ferris wheel, that's really scary. But in New York, sitting like now in her window just looking out, or being on the top of Empire state and see everything was just magical and perfect. She was almost about to fall asleep when her phone buzzed from the side table by the coach. She walked up and picked up her phone. She unlocked the phone without really paying attention to the preview of the message on the locked screen. _Jesse St. James. Are you busy? _What did he want? _No, not really_, she answered and took the phone with her as she sat down on one of the kitchen chairs. _I'm at the café by you. You think you could come down? _Rachel breathed in and out slowly before answering. _Sure, be there in a few. _She put on her shoes and grabbed a thinner jacket and walked down to the café.  
"Hey." Rachel said as she sat down opposite of Jesse.  
"Hey…" he said while he texted someone. He put down the phone and looked up in her eyes. "Glad you could come."  
"Whether I could or not wasn't the biggest problem, it was more about wanting."  
"I understand. I promise you Rachel, no more than friends. And right now I really need one." Rachel nodded and Jesse started talking about how he probably couldn't afford the rent any longer after his mom got into an accident and needed surgery. They talked for a while and Jesse told her that he could stay at his place now for about two weeks before he needed to move. Rachel thought for a while, they sat in silence sipping their coffees.  
"Why don't you stay at my place until you figure it all out?" Jesse looked up at her in surprise.  
"Really?! Rachel, are you sure?"  
"No, I'm not but I would never let my friend down." She smiled at him and he laughed.  
"You really are something special you know that?" They both laughed and talked about normal life for a while before Jesse needed to get back and Rachel started to get really tired.  
She walked back to hers and unlocked the door to her apartment. She walked in and almost fell on her face tripping over something right by the door. She caught herself on the wall in front of her and closed the door and looked down, a pair of shoes and they were not hers. She put her purse down and hung her coat up. She walked into the living room and freaked out when someone tackled her from behind. She turned around in the familiar arms and threw her arms around his neck as he lifted her up.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Glee's not mine. **

**AN: Finchel face to face moments may take some more time than I thought. Need to go through a special thing before that can happen and I don't want to rush just that thing.**

"I can't believe you're here!" Rachel cried as she let go of Kurt and took his face in her hands, tears of happiness in her eyes.  
"Don't blame you, I can't even believe I'm here!" Kurt was also crying and taking his friends hands. "Tell me everything that's been going on. Oh, and we need to give Carole your number so my phone won't blow up." Rachel looked confused. "She's been asking me for forever how you're doing and asking me every day if I've heard anything from you." Rachel smiled and laughed at how adorable this woman was.  
After Rachel showed Kurt around, for real this time, they sat down on the sofa and Rachel started telling him everything about Jesse, excluding what he just had told her, and about when Quinn came to visit. They talked for hours and Kurt filled in Rachel on everything that was going on in Lima, although it wasn't much.  
"You've heard anything from Finn?" Rachel almost whispered as the two of them had been quite for a while. Kurt shook his head.  
"No… I think Carole's been talking to him a couple of times. But the calls have been very short and I just haven't felt like asking. Don't know why really…" Rachel nodded her head and looked out the window in front of her, tears start to form in her eyes.  
"You have no idea how glad I am that you're here." She said, still looking out the window. "Quinn left just a few hours ago and the few hours that she wasn't here and before you came here I felt so lonely. I know I have to get use to it. I have four more years here where I need to focus on my studies and me guessing I will be alone for most of that time."  
"No you won't." Rachel turned her head to look at Kurt, tears now falling over her cheekbones. "I'm going to make sure I'll get in to NYADA one day. If that means a miracle is going to happen before the term starts and I get in because they liked me but just not enough, or if I have to apply for next semester I don't care. I'm getting in. I'm going to live in New York and for now and probably a while I'm going to live here with you. I'll pay part of the rent and everything. It's you and me Rachel." They smiled and Rachel threw her arms around him again.

Dinner had been worse than ever before. He and Tom had talked again, Finn didn't feel like talking so he let Tom tell his story and Finn just sat there listening. During dinner they'd been told that they would get the weekend off. They would have two trainings during the days but they wouldn't be too early and there would be no surprises. Of course most of the other guys wanted to go to a bar not too far away and Tom urged Finn to come with them. He considered going for a while but decided on a no. There was no way he was going to be any fun tonight. So while everyone else went to the cars and drove away Finn walked back and laid down on his bed. He picked up a notebook he kept under his pillow and started to flicker through the pages. He stopped on a page he knew very well, the title: "Pretending". The lyrics went over the whole page and on to the next one and the one after that. On the last page some of the letters were a bit hard to read and he knew why. He'd been there when they went from very readable to not so readable. Rachel had been reading through it before Nationals in New York and had started crying. He softly stroke his finger over where her tears had fallen and started thinking about the times when she'd been crying and he'd hold her tight in his arms, not saying a word just hugging her tightly and stroking her hair every now and then. What was she doing now? Was she meeting these really talented Broadway guys in New York and going on dates with them? He hoped not. There wasn't too much left of the training camp now, and the moment he was done he was going to see her. If there only was away for him to know that she was really fine.

Kurt and Rachel had taken a quick walk to the grocery shop and then passed a takeout place. They had been cuddled up on the couch and ate their dinner. After they cleaned it all up they found a show on the TV and shortly after that they were both asleep.  
Kurt woke up the next morning to find himself alone. He looked around to find Rachel but couldn't see her. He walked to the bathroom but found the door open and the room empty, the same for the bedroom. Where had she gone? Kurt started looking through the apartment to see if he had just missed Rachel's note but didn't find any. Oh common, he's living in the 21st century not 18th. He sighed and picked up his phone from the table. _Where you at? _He didn't hear a message alert from anywhere so figured she at least had her phone with her where ever she was. He put on the coffee machine and tried to locate in which cupboard the cups were in. He found one and put it down on the counter. His phone buzzed and he picked it up and read the review of the message from Rachel: _Needed some air, on my way back :) _Kurt sighed in relief of knowing that his friend was okay and made himself some coffee. He took the cup and his phone and sat down in one of the armchairs. _Ok. See you soon. _

Rachel had woken up early and went to sit in her window again like she had done the day before. She sat there for a pretty long time before she realized how amazing the weather was outside. She put on her shoes and coat and walked out, trying to be as quietly as possible not to wake Kurt up. She walked down the streets of New York, one after the other. She took a walk in Central Park and realized that New York must be best in the morning cause this was truly amazing. When it was getting closer to 9 am she started to head back to hers, knowing that Kurt would probably wake up soon. And that's when she got the text from him wondering where she was. She passed NYADA as stopped to look at the big doors. The weekend was here and on Monday she would go through those doors and start her life as a college student. The thought scared her and she started to think about how easy everything had been after all in High School. For four years she knew where she was and what she would do the next day, now was different.  
"So I was thinking…" Kurt started the moment Rachel closed the door behind her. "…if we get this smaller bed…" he waved his hand for her to come and look at something on his laptop. "…we could put it over there…" he pointed to the other side of the living room. "…and then make it to a couch. I also noticed you don't have any bookcases so why don't we get this one and put it up as a wall kind of and then that will be like a little cozy literature corner."  
"And a place for you to sleep?" Rachel asked while she giggled.  
"Exactly." Kurt said as he made room for Rachel to sit down next to him. They looked through the website for other things to make it all work out and then pressed the order button.  
"Awesome! When will it all be here?" Rachel asked as she stood up to grab a glass of water.  
"Well, it says here that if you order before 12 pm, it might come the same day. Perhaps we should call them and ask…" Rachel nodded.  
"Yeah probably." Kurt picked up his phone and dialed the number that the website gave and put the phone to his ear. While he talked to the man on the other side Rachel took out a bowl of fruit from the fridge and sat down in one of the armchairs.  
"Looks like we're going to get it all today." Kurt said as he put his phone down on the table. "I'll just take a quick shower and then we can start figuring stuff out for real."  
"Make it real quick cause I want one too." Rachel said before putting a spoon of fruit in her mouth.  
"I'll do my best."

Finn had tried to fall asleep real early but without success so he had decided to take a long walk. He walked around and looked up at the sky. He found a spot of nice green grass and laid down on his back. The area around him was very dark, which was a good thing, this way he could clearly see all the stars and the moon. He looked up and started thinking of that movie Rachel had made him watch ones, it was actually really good. The couple in that movie was in two different places in the world, one home in the US the other one out in the Middle East fighting. Finn couldn't really remember how it all was, but he do remember it was something with the moon and that they could both look at it and know it was the same moon, no matter where you were. Luckily for Finn at this moment he was also in a place where he knew that if Rachel looked up at the night sky now she would see exactly what he saw, well unless it was really cloudy in New York. This thing about not thinking of her was not working out for him. It was like the whole thing with them breaking up, it just didn't work. Somehow they always got back together, they must be like the worst breakuppers ever. At least to keep the breakup. Finn wasn't complaining though, he loved that Rachel had taken him back so many times, even though he'd been a jerk so many times. So perhaps she would take him back again.

The bed and bookcase arrived around 4 pm. Kurt and Rachel had, after their showers, started to move one of the smaller armchairs that was in the area to Rachel's bedroom. They left the other one and the small side table. The men that carried the furniture in helped them put it all together, Kurt had been convinced that they stayed because of Rachel. Once the bed and the bookcase were up and on their place the three men left and Kurt and Rachel started to decorate. The bookcase was big and you could see through it so even though it was like a wall it wasn't really hiding something. They put the few books they had in it and some other small decorations. Rachel made the bed and put a bunch of pillows they'd order on it to make it more like a couch. Kurt had found a box in the small closet in the hallway and was now sitting on the floor looking through everything.  
"How come you haven't unpacked all of this?" he asked while he picked up small things and photographs.  
"Huh?" Rachel answered as she fixed the last pillow on the bed. She turned around and saw the box. "Oh, ehm… Where did you find that?" she still stood by the bed, like she was afraid of the box content.  
"It was in the closet. Rachel, this is like you're whole High School life, and some of mine. Why is it still in this box." Rachel didn't answer and Kurt turned to look at her. He saw the tears form and he now understood why she refused to come over to him. "Rachel… I'm sorry, I…"  
"Don't… I… Kurt I just couldn't handle see all of this. I just…" Kurt got up from the floor and once again pulled Rachel into a big hug, rubbing her back.  
"I get Rach, but you know what? I think you need this stuff in here. You need to be reminded of all the awesome times we had at McKinley, and even though some memories might hurt you like crazy, they will make you smile in a near future." Rachel broke out of Kurt's hug and smiled at him.  
"You're right." And with that Rachel sat down on the floor next to the box. She picked up a big photo frame with three photos, the yearbook photos of New Direction. She handed it to Kurt who placed in the bookcase. Then Rachel picked up another frame. She held it in her hands and a tear fell. Kurt looked over her shoulder and smiled.  
"You two really were the perfect prom king and queen."

**Reviews are everything! 33**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Glee's not mine**

It took Kurt and Rachel almost three hours to empty the small box and put the content up in the bookcase, it wasn't too much picking whatever it was out of the box and put in on a shelf but more of all the memories each thing gave. Now it was almost 8 pm and neither of them had eaten anything since their quick lunch. Everything was ready and they were pretty pleased with what they had accomplished. Rachel stood up and let out a small sound as she stretched out her tired back.  
"I'm exhausted." She said as she took one step and then fell down in one of the armchairs.  
"Me too, but there's no way I'm letting you go to bed without dinner" Kurt said and after taking his time getting up from the floor he walked to the kitchen and tried to cook something up.  
"You need help?" Rachel asked as she got up and walked towards him.  
"No, I'm a perfectly good cook. Perhaps even better than you"  
"Doubt it" Rachel mumbled.  
The two friends were sitting at the kitchen table eating their pasta when there was a loud knock on the door. Kurt with pasta in his mouth said:  
"You go get it." Rachel just looked at him in surprise. Of course she was going to go get the door, it was her freaking place. She walked up to the door and opened it. If it hadn't been for an earlier conversation this would have thrown her back but it didn't.  
"Hi…" he sounded so unsure of himself, like all his confidence had just disappeared.  
"Hi, place come in." she tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible. "We're just finishing up dinner, you've eaten right?" He nodded and she walked back into the kitchen to warn Kurt before things would go crazy. She sat down next to him and whispered in his ear. "Jesse's here." Kurt looked confused and surprised and mouthed:  
"What?" And that was when Jesse St. James walked into the kitchen.

Finn was secretly enjoying his fellow men during the training. Most of them were hung over from the other night and you could tell that some of them had had more fun than others. That promise that there would be no practice today was a total joke. Now, luckily they didn't have one of those super early ones but everything else was just like any other day. This was the moment Finn was proud of himself for not going with the rest to get wasted and hook up with hundreds of desperate girls. Besides, he already had his girl, even though they hadn't talked for forever. Today was also call day. Every man had a few minutes to call home to family and friends, Finn had decided to skip this one. He had gotten a letter from his mom the other day telling him that she and Burt would go on a cruise and be gone for about two weeks, he'd also found out that Kurt now was with Rachel in New York, and that calmed him down more than anything else… well, hearing Rachel's voice may top that but he knew that wouldn't happen for a while. When the other men started to line up for the calls Finn walked to the dorm and laid on his bed. He took out a paper and a pen and started writing. He just wrote, not really to any one specific in the beginning he just needed to let someone out there know what he was going through. He wrote about what he'd done lately and how things are so much different than home. Then he started to write about Tom and all of a sudden he wrote the word "you". _"We started talking about his girlfriend and you." _Finn didn't really think of it much, he just kept on writing, it got deeper and deeper, things that he wouldn't just tell anyone was written on that one piece of paper and everywhere where it said you it would have said Rachel if he had written to anyone else. It wasn't until he wrote the small sentence in the middle of everything and tears started to build up in his eyes that he realized what he was doing. A tear fell down from his cheek and hit the last word of the sentence,_ "I really, really miss you." _What was he going to do now? He couldn't just send it to her. That wouldn't be right, not to him and definitely not to her. He needed to prove to her that she meant the world to him but that he needed to give her space to fulfill her dream. And by sending her this letter, he would do the opposite, well at least the opposite of that last part. As much as it hurt him, if she forgetting about him and moving on would make her come closer to her dream, then that's what she has to do and if Finn now would send her this letter she wouldn't forget about him. He kept on writing, and wrote down just what he was thinking. About how he just couldn't send her this and how it was wrong, every time he thought of the words "I love you" and "I miss you" he wrote them down, this might have been a letter to anyone from the beginning but now it was a letter to Rachel, and a letter to Rachel was always equal to a letter of just letting out everything he was feeling and thinking.  
While he was lying in his bed writing the door opened up and closed loud. He wouldn't normally care but after all the drama he'd experienced with the Glee club he knew how an upset door slam sounded. He sat up and saw Tom hurrying down the long room to his bed and then collapsing in it. Finn put the letter and the pen down on his pillow and jumped down the bunk. He walked up to his friend and when he was by the neighboring bed he asked:  
"You okay man?" Tom looked up at him. Red eyed and swollen face, tears streaming down his face.  
"I.. I…" Finn didn't really know what to do. It was one thing when a girl was crying. Like when he'd been in these situations with Rachel or Quinn or Santana even all he really had to do was sit next to them and hug them. Well, sit next and try to talk to, perhaps put a hand on the shoulder if it was Santana, give a friendly hug if it was Quinn and more like pick up and rock back and forth while kissing her forehead if it was Rachel. How do you comfort a guy? When Rachel had comfort him she had hugged him or told him things that would comfort him but that was ones again a relationship between a couple, he and Tom was not a couple. How do you comfort your friend? Girls were always hugging and telling the other one how awesome they are and that it's all the other person, often the guy's, fault. But what was this now? In lack of any idea of what to do he sat down on the bed opposite of Tom's.  
"Come on now, you can tell me. I promise I won't tell anyone."  
"I… I was with…"  
"With?"  
"With someone else last night" While finishing the sentence he almost broke apart. Finn could hear the sorrow and the regret in his voice and how bad he was feeling. He knew how he felt about his girls, Finn felt the same way about Rachel and that had been a reason why he didn't want to go last night.  
"Have you told her?"  
"No." Tom closed his eyes and took a deep breath."I was in line and everything. I was only gonna call her and tell her the truth but… I just couldn't. Half way to the room I just couldn't find the words and I can't even imagine how upset she's gonna get and I'm not gonna see her in forever and we'll be done. I can't lose her man. I just can't." Finn didn't know what to say. Yes, normally you should be on your friends side, bros before hoes, but he knew what cheating felt like. On all parts.  
"You need to tell her." Tom looked up at him. "You need to go back into that line…" Finn pointed towards the door. "… and tell her what happened. You need to tell her everything. From the first drink you had till today when you realized what happened and how you didn't know what to say. You need to tell her what you told me just now. Think of her man, think of her feelings." Tom looked at him straight into the eyes and got up.  
"Thanks man. You must truly be the most amazing boyfriend, if I were gay I would so go for you." They both smiled and Finn wished him good luck and told him that he'd always be there whenever he needed to talk. When Tom finally closed the door Finn thought to himself:  
"_No way the most amazing boyfriend…" _ And he jumped back up in his bed and continued writing, he wrote about what had just happened and how he had tried to figure out how to comfort his friend and realized it needed a lot more thinking than comforting his girlfriends.  
He finally finished, 5 pages, written on both sides. He put them in an envelope and took out another piece of paper. And wrote: _Kurt! Please read this before doing anything else."_

Back in New York Kurt and Rachel were sitting on the coach watching a show. Jesse was taking a shower and no one had said a word in what felt like forever.  
"Soo…" Kurt started. "Two questions." Rachel sighed and focused her eyes on the TV. "One. What were you thinking inviting _him _to stay here? Two. How is he going to live here? There's no room for another bed." Rachel didn't leave the screen with her eyes.  
"Well, first of all. When he came to me for help and I offered him to stay here…"  
"You offered!?"  
"I offered him to stay here I had no idea you were going to show up just like that. He needed help and he's still my friend…"  
"A friend who threw eggs at you?"  
"He's not like that anymore." Kurt sighed. "And, like I said I didn't know you'd be here so I figured we could figure something out for him. Kind of what we did for you. So I don't really know where to go now. Maybe he and I just have to share bed…" Kurt turned off the TV and turned to her in shock.  
"WHAT?!" Rachel started laughing and looked at her friend.  
"I'm kidding Kurt, we'll figure it out." As much as Kurt was confused and all right now it felt so good to see her laugh again, a laughing Rachel was nothing that anyone could get enough of.  
"Fine. We'll figure it out."  
And they did at least for a while. Kurt would share bed with Rachel and Jesse would take what would have been Kurt's room. They would try and figure something better out but right now that's all they could do. Besides, Jesse had told them that he was already looking for another place so they wouldn't have to keep him there for too long. He might even get some help so that he could live in one of the dorms at NYADA. Kurt wasn't too pleased about the situation but he would rather see himself sharing bed with Rachel than Jesse. He may be different than two years ago but he's still kind of a jerk and if there was a way Kurt could keep any guy away from Rachel, without her noticing too much and him destroying her life, until Finn got back and they cleared it all up he'd do it. He may not have agreed on his brother's decisions but he knew he really did care about her and Kurt was a real Finchel shipper.


	10. Chapter 10

He opened his eyes and met the green light from the clock, 02.45. Why was he up at this hour? Right when he was about to turn around he heard her:  
"Don't, please don't. Finn! No!" Kurt sat up in the bed and looked down at his friend twitching in her sleep. "No! No, you're lying!" He put his hand on her right shoulder and shook her lightly. "It's not true, it's not!"  
"Rachel. Rach, wake up." Rachel's eyes opened up really fast and she started taking short breaths. "You okay?" She sat up and put her knees to her chest and shook her head. Kurt put an arm around her and hugged her.  
"He was… he was dead!" Rachel sobbed and tears started pouring down.  
"It was just a dream, Rach. Just a dream. He's fine, if he weren't we would know. I promise." Kurt hugged her harder and tried to comfort her while he also tried to convince himself that his stepbrother was alright. No one had heard from him in a while, what if something was wrong? There was a knock the door and Jesse walked in.  
"Hey. Is everything okay in here?" Kurt could see the worry in his face. Rachel had been right, Jesse had been living with the two for two weeks now, and he wasn't that jerk he'd been ones.

All of a sudden there was a scream and Finn sat straight up in his bed and looked around. The three other men in the room was up as well, the forth man was still lying in his bed, sweating and twitching like crazy. Finn walked up to him and shook him awake.  
"Hey! Hey! Tom! You okay?" Tom looked into Finn's eyes and nodded.  
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." The other men lay back down and Finn started walking back towards his bed. He never got the picture of Tom's empty eyes staring into his. He was about to pull the blanket over him when the alarm went off. The five men all jumped out of their beds and put on their boots and uniforms while they run outside to meet up. It was dark outside and people were screaming from every direction. Right when the commander was about to tell them what was going on a loud noise came and a strong white light filled up the sky. The building exploding could be heard from far away and the fire was growing. They all got assigned what to do and for long Finn and his group of men was suppose to prepare to back up if needed.  
They'd been in the fields for just a few days. One morning during breakfast back in Fort Benning they'd been told that 15 of them would be sent to the fields. Both Finn and Tom had been among the 15 and here they were. Finn hadn't had any time to tell anyone back home what was going on. He did however manage to send away the letter to Kurt and all the men had been told that their families would be informed of what had happened. He couldn't stop thinking about his mom's reaction. She'd probably gotten the message about the same time she and Burt came home from the cruise, or what if they still didn't know. He knew that the moment his mom got the information it wouldn't take long before Kurt and Rachel would know too. What would Rachel do? At least he got the letter send.  
Someone was screaming at them to hurry up and the five men hurried to a truck that stood nearby. They all jumped in and the moment Finn's feet left the ground the truck started and drove towards the burning building.  
The truck arrived and the men stepped out and gathered.  
"I'm sorry you all have to face this so soon." The commander started as he looked at the men in front of him. "You've practiced this. I know it. I've seen it. You go in your groups. Don't ever lose contact! Look after living civilians and bring them out. If you're ever unsure contact me, if I don't answer listen to your gut. GO!" All the men split up into their groups and took one entry per group. Finn, Tom and a guy named Hank were in the same group. They entered the building and you could barely see two feet in front of you. They started moving in walking fast but carefully. Finn felt the smoke in his nose and throat and slowly it was beginning to be hard to breath. Hank led the group, he walked across a room and came to a stop. He looked to his left and right and then waved to Tom to go left, and Tom in his turn did the same to Finn. Right when Finn was about to turn left parts of the roof fell down right in front of him. He jumped back and shock began to fill his body, cause not only did the freaking roof just collapse but it may very well have fallen right on top of his friend, and not only that but there had been a reason the roof fell. On top of what had been parts of the roof laid now two bodies, one of them the commander and the other a young man, probably not much younger than Finn. He wasn't sure whether the young man was a civilian or something else, but he wasn't one of them. In the middle of his shock and all his thoughts he heard a scream behind him. He quickly turned around and hurried down the hallway towards the scream. He turned left, then right and came into a small room. Finn looked around to find the source of the scream and finally saw the silhouettes in one of the corners. He silently and carefully moved towards the black figure, or figures. Then he saw the source, or perhaps sources. In the small corner laid a young woman and with her two children. A very young boy, not older than three laid on the woman's stomach crying and beside sat a girl who was around 10 tears streaming down her small face. Finn looked around once more before approaching them. He crouched down and reached out to try and find the woman's pulse, while he did he looked at the girl, right into her eyes. He doubted that she would understand him so he tried with all his heart to tell the little girl with his eyes that he was going to help them. He finally found her pulse and was now trying to figure out a way to get them all out of the building safe. That's when he remembered what the commander had said "_don't ever lose contact" _he'd lost it. He'd lost his group, his commander and possibly his friend. For a second he considered making a call to the whole patrol but decided it was more important to get these people out of here. He motioned for the girl to stand up and so she did, he then tried to lift up the little boy but he started to scream and cry even more. Finn tried and tried, all of a sudden a small hand was on top of his. He looked up and met the girl's eyes, he slowly took his hands away and the girl bent down over the boy and said something to him. The little boy stood up and the girl held him tight. Finn lifted the woman over his one shoulder and after reassuring himself that the girl understood that she had to hold on really tight to the boy and him he lifted the children up as well. Carrying three people was much easier than he thought it would have been. Maybe he was in one of those situations when you can do almost anything. He looked around to try and locate the nearest exit. The girl must have understood because she motioned with her head for Finn to go forward, and she'd been right they were right back in the hallway. Finn managed to make the kids close their eyes so they wouldn't have to see the roof as he walked past the site of the accident. One more time the girl helped him locate his way and when he saw the door that would lead them out of the building he heard the roof and walls around him crack. He was just a few feet away from the door. He hurried over to the door, opened it and threw the three people he'd been carrying out the door before the building collapsed.

Something wasn't right, they all knew it. After Rachel had woken up none of the three could fall back asleep. They started by just all cuddling up in bed and talking about Broadway shows that are must sees and the most amazing music, but something was wrong. After a while it was no use to go back to sleep so they all just decided to start their day, at 4.57 am. They ate breakfast and watched those bad reality shows that are always on at weird hours. Kurt was sick and tired of the feeling of knowing that something was wrong but not being able to figure out what. He'd had the feeling a few times before but this was indescribable, he couldn't get it out of his mind. It was crazy. Jesse had felt something too. Not only were Kurt and Rachel acting different but he had a feeling this day wouldn't be a good one. And Rachel. She had woken up after that nightmare and not being able to get the thoughts out of her head. The boys had asked her if she wanted to talk about it but she really didn't want to. There was no part what so ever of her that wanted to tell them, it had all been to horrible. She'd seen it all from the top. Seeing how her Finn was at some unknown place being sent out to save people. She'd seen his determination and then she saw herself standing in the Hudson-Hummel house. Kurt, Burt, Carole and an unknown man in uniform were sitting down in the living room and even though she was asked several times to sit down she refused. Then the man had told them a story about how Finn had been sent to the fields and how he'd been seriously injured in an accident and unfortunately had passed. The next scene was played out in front of her, she dropped to the floor and everything went black as she closed her eyes and tears streamed down her face, then Kurt's hand on her shoulder and there it all ended. Something was wrong and she need to find out what. Was something seriously wrong with Finn? Was he hurt? Had something happened? Was he no longer in Georiga? Did Carole know? If so, how come she hadn't said anything?  
It was a really rainy day in New York, one of those days that only contained that sort of rain that only New York City could bring. If you walked outside you would be seriously drenched, just like in all movies when the characters are out for like a second and are suddenly just as wet as if they'd jumped into a swimming pool fully dressed. They had all just spent the morning inside. Watching reruns of shows and eating everything they had. Rachel must have drunken about five cups of tea by lunch time. They had lunch too and then went back to their beloved reruns, and that's when the trio fell asleep.  
Rachel woke up about two hours later when a phone was ringing, and the signal was really loud. She stretched her back and looked around to try and find the phone. It was Jesse's, right when she was about to wake him up she realized she recognized the number. A bit scared she picked up the phone.  
"Hello..?"  
"Rachel?"  
"Yeah, it's me…" she was seriously scared now. Her heart started beating really fast and hard. She looked to her right and left to see if any of the other two had woken up, they hadn't. "I'm sorry, what?" She had heard that she was being talked to but hadn't been able to listen.  
"Rachel, honey, I… I don't know how to say this…" she was now seriously about to freak. "… Are you alone?" Rachel hesitated before answering.  
"No, or well yes, but no… or well… no, but they're asleep." Tears were beginning to form in her eyes.  
"Wake them up please…" she did as she was told and carefully tried to wake Kurt up. He slowly opened his eyes.  
"Huh? Rachel? Are you okay?" she nodded and pointed to the phone as she turned around and woke Jesse up.  
"Everyone's awake" she then updated the caller. Kurt looked at her confused.  
"Will you put me on speaker?" Rachel did as she was asked and told the caller so when she had.  
"Hey Kurt, hope you're alright. And the same to you Jesse." The callers voice was beginning to crack. Jesse looked confused and perhaps a bit scared, Kurt looked worried and kept looking back and forth from Rachel and the phone before he finally said:  
"Carole?"


	11. Chapter 11

"Yes honey, it's me." No one said a word. They all knew now that they'd been right in their own minds about something being wrong. Otherwise Carole wouldn't have called them and sound like that. "Jesse, I need to ask you for a favor." Jesse nodded before remembering that the woman couldn't see him. He cleared his throat and answered:  
"Yeah, sure anything."  
"I want you to make sure both Rachel and Kurt listen to what I have to say. I need you to keep them as calm as possible and support them in any way, promise?" He looked at Rachel and saw the fear in her eyes.  
"Promise" They could hear Carole draw a deep breath and for the first time they heard Burt in the background talking to someone.  
"Not too long ago Finn and a few other men were deported to the fields. It was a really quick move and they only picked out the best ones at Fort Benning." Jesse were holding Rachel's one hand and Kurt the other and the both looked at each other as they felt her body stiffen. "Well, the patrol Finn was in got called to a situation and…" Carole's voice broke and they heard her sobs. There was some talk in the background while Jesse quickly switched hand to hold Rachel's in and put his other arm around her and the hand on Kurt's shoulder to show support for both of them. After a short moment there was an unknown man speaking to them, he presented himself and continued where Carole had left off.  
"Well you see, the mission was to save the civilians in the building. The building started to collapse early and when the first collapse was being known most of the men left the building as fast as they could. A few of them although were determined to save lives, Hudson included." There was a pause and tears were streaming down Kurt's face and Jesse felt how he was close to tears too. He looked at Rachel and was surprised to see her dry face. "I need to tell you that because Hudson stayed he saved three lives, two of whom were children. The whole building collapsed and at this moment we're not quite sure what the situation is like. You all need to keep your faith up, there's a chance he survived." The man continued talking with them for a while, asking if they had any questions but neither of them could say anything. The man finished the talk and must have left because they heard the goodbyes and then the door closing.  
"Kids… I'm sorry you have to hear about this but we couldn't just not tell you. Me and Carole have been talking and if it's alright with you we would like to come to New York and stay for a while. We know it's a bit crowded at your place so we'll stay at a hotel or something, but we feel like we need to be around you."  
"I think that's good." Jesse was the only one that was able to speak for the moment.  
"Rachel, Kurt? Are the two of you… alright?" Carole asked. Kurt breathed in, cleared his throat and closed his eyes before answering.  
"Yeah… or no, but yeah."  
"We know, sweetie." Kurt nodded and then there was silence. Both Kurt and Jesse were looking at Rachel, still no tears, still no movement. She'd been sitting in the exact same position throughout the whole talk and been starring at the exact same spot.  
"Rachel, are you okay?" Kurt asked patting her hand. Still no reaction. Jesse let go of her hand and told Kurt to take her to the bedroom. Kurt nodded.  
"Dad, Carole, I'm going to take care of Rachel and all, but I'll be glad to see you soon."  
"Do that son, we'll be landing tonight." Jesse helped Kurt get Rachel to her feet and Kurt managed to get her into the bedroom.  
"How's the situation Jesse?"  
"Not very good. I think Rachel is in shock. She hasn't been moving or talking or anything since the call." Jesse talked to Carole and Burt for a while describing the situation and then giving them the address to their lot. They hung up and Jesse fell back on the couch crying.

Everything was so dark and unclear. Finn didn't know where he was. In any normal situation he would start to freak out a bit, with no idea where he is or what's going on he should be feeling scared, but he wasn't, he was as calm as ever. There was nothing around him, he looked around to try and locate himself. Looking around didn't really help him. It was like he was in a pitch dark room with no furniture or anything. Just a really, really dark room with nothing in it, but he couldn't see where the room ended. Then he saw something. It was like a movie screen appeared in front of him. He recaptured a moment, a moment in his life. He saw himself carrying three people, one woman and two children. He saw himself throw them out a door and for the first time he saw the woman's face. She was awake, she looked up at him. She was about his age, long brown hair and those eyes. They locked with him and he saw the tears form in them. He reminded him of someone, someone very special to him. The woman whom he'd just saved reminded him of Rachel. Then, before he was able to move or say anything he heard a loud crack and he felt a heavy punch on his back and everything went pitch dark again.  
He started hearing voices, too many voices, they were everywhere. He couldn't really make out what anyone was saying. He heard his name a few times. He felt how he was dragged over something and then everything disappeared again. This kept on happening. He started hearing voices and felt how someone was doing something to him and then it went black, and after a while it all started again. He'd never been as confused before, and the most confusing part was that he still felt calm and… sort of happy.  
There was a really loud noise and a bright light filled up his pitch dark room. Now he started freaking out, he felt the panic his heart started beating really hard and really fast. He thought of Rachel, he saw New York. All he wanted was to be with her. His back hurt like crazy, he felt sick, his head hurt, he couldn't move. God, he needed her right now. He didn't need anything else but her. Screw the medicine and the painkillers just get her here was all he could think. Then, all of a sudden he was starring right up into a star covered dark sky. His eyes started to flicker in confusion. He saw people standing around and over him, he saw how they touched him but he couldn't feel a thing. Oh wait a minute, he could. A thrilling pain went through his entire body and he screamed. Louder than he ever had before. Everything started to come back to him. The unbearable pain and the fear. He felt blood on him and how a hundred different people was standing around him trying to fix his broken body. A man came running and put something into his arm, it took a few seconds but the drugs started to work and his body calmed down. He was still awake but the pain wasn't as bad. Two men came behind him. One of them held his head still, the other one held onto his left shoulder. They both held him very hard and still while he saw a third man walk around him to his left side. He felt how the man took his lower arm and then… A noise he never wanted to hear ever again. His armed ached but it felt kind of good.  
Somewhere in the middle of everything it went dark again, but not quite as dark as earlier. Finn woke up by himself, without anyone around him, without a loud noise, he just woke up. He looked around him and saw five other men lying down in beds just like his own. A few of them men had bandages around them and they all looked pretty messed up. He heard as one of the men let out a small scream. Finn looked over to the bed and saw Tom. He has survived the collapse, and as he looked around so had all his men. Although Tom had survived, something wasn't right. There was something missing.

"Rachel? Sweetie, please talk to me…" Kurt was almost in tears again. Not over the whole Finn situation, but over how distant his best friend was. He had gotten her into the bedroom and put her down on the bed. He sat next to her and had tried for the last 15 minutes to get her attention, but she was gone. "Please, please. Rachel just look at me. Just do something so I know that you at least can hear me." Kurt kept on begging for a while. "Rachel. I, I… I can't do this without you. You're everything I have right now and I really need you." Tears were streaming down his face and for the first time Rachel moved her head a little and looked at him. Right into his eyes. For the first time tears were beginning to form in her eyes, they started to fall and her breathing became harder. Kurt sat up with his back against the wall as he took Rachel in his arms and hugged her tight. He held her and tried to calm her down, although he knew that wasn't an easy thing right now. At this moment, in this situation he had no idea what could possible calm her down. Not even a trip to Broadway or a movie night with her favorite movies would make her feel better.  
Kurt held Rachel for about 10 minutes before he noticed her breathing going back to normal. He cupped her face and made her look at him.  
"How are you feeling?" she shook her head, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Kurt wiped a few tears of her face and hugged her again. There was a knock on the bedroom doorframe and Jesse walked in. Even though the lightning wasn't the best Kurt could see that he'd been crying as well.  
"Are you two okay?" he asked and Kurt really saw the worry in his face.  
"Yeah…" he answered and took a hand through Rachel's hair. She turned and looked at Jesse, saw what Kurt just had seen and it broke her. Now he just stood there, awkwardly, probably feeling like he didn't belong and shouldn't be here. He probably thought they didn't want him here but that wass wrong. Rachel took a deep breath.  
"Come on. You're not going to stand there all alone." She sat and motioned for him to sit in the bed with them. Jesse looked at Kurt who smiled at him. He took his place in the bed and the three of them sat on the soft bed in a triangle. Rachel put her arms around her both friends and pulled a bit in them to start a group hug. Kurt and Jesse put their arms around Rachel and each other and the friendly group hug was on.  
"Thank you." Rachel whispered and the hug became tighter.

Finn couldn't believe it. He just couldn't. What would happen with Tom's life now? What would happen with all his plans? He was going go with his girl on a travel around the world. Looks like that's not going to happen. Finn looked down at his feet and tried to move his toes. He saw how the blanket moved a little. Then he looked down at his left hand and moved his fingers, they moved as well. He breathed out and sighed and looked back at Tom. There was a wheelchair standing by his bed, wonder if he'd had the time to use it or if he'd been in the bed this whole time. How was he going to travel with only one leg? That made him think, did Tom's girlfriend know what had happened? Did Rachel know? If she knew, what had she been told? It was almost as he wished she didn't know. He didn't want Rachel to be worried, he didn't want his mom or Kurt or anyone else to worry about him. He could just imagine if they would have found out what had happened. His mom would freak out at first but then calmed down, she'd be fine. Burt would heal too, and so would Kurt. But what about Rachel? He just wished she talked with Kurt and didn't go into her bubble of panic.

Let's just say it was a good thing he didn't really know the situation back in New York City.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.  
We're getting closer to the real "Finchel" moments, eye to eye and perhaps more. I may start to rush things and then get back to take it all very slow, but it all depends on my imagination at the time. When I know and want something to happen I will fasten the process to get there, and do the opposite when I have no idea what should come next. If any suggestions leave them in the review section. Now, here we go chapter 12! ;)**

There was a loud knock that woke Rachel up, and scared her to death at the same time. She sat up and looked around. On her left was Kurt and on her right Jesse. After some more hugging and talking they had all fallen asleep out of exhaustion. Another knock. As she got up from the bed, careful not to wake Jesse up as she had to climb over him to get to the bedroom door, she started to wonder why the boys didn't wake up from the knock, it was freaking loud. She opened up the bedroom door and took the few steps to the front door. She unlocked it and opened it and was more or less attacked by a woman's embrace. She recognized the smell, the feeling, the voice and the man who'd been standing next to her and was now trying to get in to the apartment.  
"Rachel, sweetie…" Carole lost her words as she pulled away from the hug and cupped her face. Rachel tried to force out a small smile and sniffled a little as a few tears started to form in her eyes. She gave Carole one more hug before she turned to Burt and was dragged into the man's big embrace. Rachel closed the door behind them and showed where they could hang their coats. She really didn't want to talk about what they all knew, or she kind of did because she cared so much about Finn and didn't want anyone to think otherwise, but at the same time bringing everything up again would make her loose it again. To keep the calm air between the three she walked into the living room and motioned for the couple to follow.  
"So this is it. Kurt and Jesse are asleep, don't know what it is about guys and not waking up when there's loud noises around." Carole laughed and looked at Burt with amusement.  
"I know what you mean."  
"Well, we don't know what it is about you _ladies _waking up over the smallest things." They all smiled. Rachel continued to show them the apartment, everything except the bedroom which she was going to show once the guys had woken up.  
"This is lovely, dear." Carole said and sat down on the couch.  
"Yeah, it is… As for right now it feels a bit small, but living alone in it, it was almost far too big." She went quite and sat down the three cups of coffee and the table.  
"I can imagine." Burt said. "So, you all three lives here now?" Rachel started to tell them about everything. She even started from where Quinn has visit her and then how she'd met Jesse and everything.

"Burt, take it easy, maybe they're out. Or asleep."  
"If they're out we'd know, they knew we were coming, and if they're asleep, Carole it's 6pm. They shouldn't be asleep." One more knock. Carole and Burt heard someone unlocking the door. Carole's heart grew as she saw the petite brunette open the door, the daughter she never had. She hugged her for a long time as she started to pull away she said in the most comforting voice:  
"Rachel, sweetie…" but as she took a glance and that beautiful face her words disappeared. There was this beautiful girl, this happy little song bird with the most beautiful laugh, and she was destroyed. Red puffy eyes and a tired expression. Carole saw as a few tears started to form in her brown eyes and a forced smile came out. She got one more hug before Rachel had gone behind her and got dragged into Burt's embrace.  
The apartment was really amazing, it was beautiful. As she sat down with Kurt on the couch and Rachel brought them coffee the only thing she could think about was that Finn should have been there. He should live in this apartment with Rachel, they should have been married, even though Burt and the Berrys has wished for it to wait. Yes, they were a bit young to get married at 18, but they were in love and how much different would it be for them to get married there and then than now? Well, now that wouldn't happen. Not unless Finn was miraculously okay and would come back to Rachel, then she would see the wedding she's been dreaming on for a long time.

Kurt woke up starring at the ceiling. He looked to his right and only saw Jesse. Where the hell was Rachel? He sat up as quickly as possible and threw a pillow at Jesse who woke up and looked around.  
"Where's Rachel?" he asked and looked at Kurt.  
"I don't know! Why do you think I threw that pillow at you? Don't forget to pick it up." Kurt said as he jumped off the bed. The two boys rushed out of the bedroom and in to the living room.  
"Oh, thank God." Kurt sighed as he saw Rachel in one of the armchairs and… was that his dad and Carole? The two people sitting on the couch turned around and he'd been right.  
"That happy we're here?" his dad said and got up and hugged his son. Carole got up to and gave Jesse a small hug he hadn't expected. Burt had done the same as Carole came to hug Kurt.  
"I'm very happy that you're here, believe me, but I was more thankful that Rachel was still here."  
"Well, since I seem to be the only one who wakes up when there's a loud knock on the door…" she began but Kurt interrupted her by throwing one of the small pillows in the couch on her.  
"Wow, what's up with you a throwing pillows at people?" Jesse said as he walked over to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. Kurt sighed and sat down next to Carole on the couch, Jesse took the other armchair. It was quite, for a really long time. Rachel was sipping on her coffee, Jesse looked out the window. Burt was looking at Carole who was looking at Rachel and Kurt sat there just starring at everyone.  
"So… have you heard anything?" she almost whispered the five words and didn't look up from her cup. Kurt looked to his dad.

"NO! NO! Noo! It can't be. You're wrong! WRONG!" Finn woke up from the yelling. He'd fallen back asleep, if it was because he was tired or because of injuries or drugs he didn't know, but he'd been asleep and now he was awake again. There was some whispering.  
"Don't you dare whisper about me! Say it to my face! TO MY FACE!" Finn turned his head to look at the chaos in the corner, there were five men standing around Tom's bed. They were holding folders and bags of different things. Tom kept on yelling, telling them they were idiots and didn't know anything. One of the men turned around and saw Finn awake. He said something to the man standing next to him who nodded.  
"How are you feeling?" The man who had seen him awake had come to his bed and was leafing through the pages of his binder.  
"How am I suppose to feel?" Finn asked looking at the man. He smiled at him and lifted up to cover to his knees.  
"Can you move your toes?" Finn did as he was asked. "Good." He scrambled something down. "Now, can you try and move your feet. However you want, just want to make sure we haven't missed anything." Finn nodded and moved his feet. "Good." The man said again and scrambled. He was asked to bend his knees, move his fingers and hands and bend his elbows. Everything seemed to work and he had feeling in everything. "I'm going to take you to the tent next to this one to check your spine." Finn began to rise in the bed. "No, stay down. We decided to wheel everyone out on the beds this tent." Finn nodded, understanding what the man meant and as he waved for a second one to come and help he tried to imagine Tom's situation. The two men rolled Finn out to the other tent, right when he passed Tom's bed he looked at him. Tears streaming down his face, they're eyes met for a second and then he was out of the tent and within a second in another one. He was once again alone with the first man.  
"What happened to Tom?" Finn asked as the man turned his back to him to pick something up.  
"I'm not quite sure to be honest, but his left leg is amputated." Finn nodded and looked at the man.  
"Did everyone survive?" He turned around to face him.  
"Yes, yes they did."  
"Good…" Finn felt like he shouldn't ask any more questions about the earlier situation but that there was something that no one wanted to tell him, they were hiding something.  
"Okay, let's get this thing done then shall we? If you try to sit up." Finn sat up in the bed, it took a bit longer than usually and he felt a little ache in his lower back. "Are you okay?"  
"Yes, it's a bit harder getting up than usually and my lower back hurts just a little." The man wrote what he said down.  
"Alright, well, as long as you can sit up. That's always a good sign and I think the ache may just be some bruises and perhaps a broken or damaged tailbone. Can you try to put your feet down on the floor?" Finn did as he was asked and could feel his feet touching the floor, guess that's a pretty good sign too. "Great, now, I'm going to stand right next to you so if you ever feel like unsure grab a hold of my shoulder. Will you try to stand?" Finn put his weight on his feet. There was an ache in his right knee, it wasn't unlike a knee injury he had gotten during football but he could still feel it. He steadied himself up and closed his eyes when he straightened his back. "You okay?"  
"Oh yeah, I'm good." The man went around him and looked at his spine. They walked and checked some abrasions.  
"It all looks pretty good. You're a lucky one Hudson, you must have a guardian angel somewhere." Finn smiled.  
"Yeah, guess I do."  
"I'll be right back, you just wait here." Finn nodded and as the man left the room he put his hand into his left breast pocket and pulled out the photo of Rachel. He looked into her eyes and smiled at the picture. If she only were with him.  
"Finn Hudson?" a man walked into the room and shook hand with him.  
"Yes, sir."  
"I have something I need to tell you. It'll be long, it may be painful but it is very important that you listen to me. We don't want any misunderstandings from any sides." Finn looked at the man in confusion. What the hell was he on?

**So that was it for this chapter. I have the story outline for a time now and was considering continuing this chapter a bit longer but I think this would be a better end for it than the alternative ending. I'm so excited Finchel in the same place is getting closer and I'm just so excited to hear what you think of it all. I also heard some rumors about Finn and Rachel getting back together in the show, hopefully this is true but who knows.  
Oh, and Happy New Year's! Hope you had a great one!**

**Please leave your reviews, it makes me continue to write when I have no idea what to do.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: Well, once again, Glee's not mine. I'm just fangirling!  
I will leave you guys hanging a little this chapter, not really meaning that it will take a little longer for next chapter to come, more that something's kind of going to happen that you won't find out till later in the story. After reading this chapter you could always guess. ;)**

Finn starred at the man in front of him. Was he fucking joking? This could not be fucking true? He almost had tears in his eyes because what he's just been told could not be true. It just couldn't. What was he going to do now? Just go back to everything and pretend like this didn't happen to him? What was everyone going to think? He was destroyed, and the only thing he could do was go back home. After what he had just been told he couldn't do anything else. He was going home, even though it wasn't for reasons he had in mind when leaving, but he was going home.

Burt and Carole had been in New York for two days now. For two days they hadn't heard any news about Finn. For two days Rachel had been crying herself to sleep in Kurt's bed with his arms around her. Since Burt and Carole decided to spend the first night in their apartment, after they'd been forced to by the kids, Jesse took the couch and to give Burt and Carole some privacy they were sleeping in Rachel's bedroom while Rachel and Kurt slept in Kurt's, well… for now kind of Jesse's bed. The day before they'd had a pretty good day. Jesse had went out to continue his search for a place to stay and Rachel and Kurt had shows Carole and Burt New York. Everyone was happy and was beginning to calm, or so they thought, well everyone except Rachel, she knew that everyone was not okay because she was the problem. Every minute she got alone she broke down. She was tired and sad and she wanted to relax in Finn's arms again. She wanted to cry, let it all out, and have Finn there lifting her up on his lap and hugging her tightly. She wanted Finn to cuddle up closer to her whenever she had nightmares and tell her that it was okay and that he was there to protect her. She wanted Finn to grab the makeup out of her hands telling her she didn't need it. She wanted to wake up to a snoring Finn Hudson next to her. She wanted that one morning in a million where she would wake up and for a short moment freak out because she was alone in her bed but then smell the burning breakfast from the kitchen and see Finn freaking out over what to do. She wanted to walk past the bathroom in the mornings and hear him sing in the shower. She wanted the complain every time she suggested they would watch another musical and then see the spark in his eye when they were half through it, well, unless it was one he'd seen before for some unknown reason Finn was not one who could watch one movie several times, there were some exceptions. Rachel Berry wanted Finn Hudson back. Rachel Berry needed Finn Hudson back.  
A few of their friends had called within the last days. They'd all found out and was checking in to see if anyone had heard anything more. Yesterday Burt had called the hotel they were planning to stay at. Apparently there was some problems with the booking so they would have to wait to check in until the next day. Luckily that wasn't a problem for anyone. It was now 3.56am. Rachel had woken up once again after a terrible nightmare. This one hadn't been as violent as the earlier. For days she's dreamt about big battles where Finn would get hurt and the moment she would see him go into the light she would wake up breathing heavily and tears streaming. Tonight it was a very calm nightmare. It had started with her walking in a black dress and heels over a beautiful green hill. The sky was blue and the trees surrounding her were beautiful, it was the perfect day. She was standing on top of the hill looking out over a graveyard. She walked down the hill to a crowd of black dressed people hugging each other. She saw Burt, Kurt, Puck, Sam, Mike and Blaine come down carrying a casket. Then she was standing by a deep squared whole looking down at the casket at the bottom. There were flowers and letter on top of it. One moment everyone was behind her, the other she was all alone. Alone by the grave of the love of her life. She was then again at the top of the hill looking down as some men were filling the grave. It was then she felt two arms around her. He held her tight, she felt his nose in her hair and his lips against her neck. She lifted her chin and rested her head on his shoulder while placing her hands on top of his. She breathed in and out slowly and she felt a calm surround her. Then the calm stopped. _"I can't stay love. I have to leave. I don't belong here" _His words echoing in her mind. The sky turned a dark grey as they were sitting on the hill, she between his legs leaning against him. It all became really dark. _"I love you." _And he was gone. She fell back and nothing was there. She was then back by the grave. It was filled and a gravestone was at the head of the grave. _Finn Hudson. _And there she woke up. Breathing heavily and tears quietly coming down her face. She sat up, slowly and carefully so Kurt wouldn't wake up. She went quietly to the bathroom and locked the door, she then fell to the floor with her back against the door sobbing uncontrolled.  
"Please, please come home Finn." She whispered as tears streamed down her face like they would never stop.

Suited men with shiny black shoes walked passed him as he sat by a small café at the airport. He couldn't understand how people living in the same country could be so different from each other. He'd just spent time in an area where the people didn't even have shoes and where a family of six shared a small piece of bread for dinner and now here were these men wearing suites worth millions of dollars and travelling the world. He just shook his head at the situation, this was just ridiculous worst part being that he was almost a hundred percent sure that these awful men knew exactly what was going on in other places of their country but they just didn't give a fuck. God, that pissed him off!  
He'd been at the airport for some time. It had taken him a couple of days to get from the fields into the capital and there he had to spend a night at a hotel before there was an available flight. He didn't carry much, he had his big backpack and a smaller for carryon. He'd come to realize that it was much easier to travel as a military than as any ordinary person, or there were some weird paper works that you had to fill in and smaller stuff like that but it was very easy to get good seats and great service. His flight was departing in an hour, he sat at the hard wooden stools sipping his coffee and thinking about where he would go. The flight he was on was going to fly to London and from there to Miami. From there he had to figure out where he'd go. He could go straight to Lima where he probably should be, or he could go to New York where he wanted to be. Should he just wait and see till he got to Miami and then take the first available, if that then was to New York or Columbus that was for faith to decide. What would he say? Well, that may depend on where he would go, or would it? Either way he would have to face sadness and truth. He would have to tell them what had happened to him… A family of four walked passed him, all very nicely dressed and looked so carefree. He almost dropped his cup out of anger. This was not fair.

Kurt sat up in bed and realized Rachel wasn't there, he looked out the living room and couldn't see her there either. There was a note at the table from Jesse saying that he'd went out. Carole and his dad was probably still sleeping, he looked around for any sign of where Rachel could be but didn't see or hear anything. As he went over to the sink to grab a glass of water he accidently knocked over his bag form the kitchen island. Luckily only a few papers flew out. He picked it up and sat it in one of the chairs, he was going to pick up the papers when he saw it. The letter. He'd forgotten about it. It had been in his bag for like forever. He picked it all up and opened the envelope and took out the small piece of paper that was for him. _"Kurt, please give the letter to Rachel when you think she'll need it. Love you, Finn". _Give it to her when she needed it, well wasn't this a time when she needed it. Everyone of them needed a letter from Finn now. For a short moment Kurt considered taken the letter himself and read it but luckily he decided not to. He took the envelope and his glass of water and walked out to the hall to see if Rachel's shoes and coat was still there. She might have followed Jesse out last minute and forgot to write a note. It was all there, he leaned against the bathroom door not sure what to do and that's when he realized he hadn't looked in there. He listened carefully through the door and at first he didn't hear anything but then there was a very small sniffle and he knew that sniffle from anywhere. He turned and softly knocked on the door before he tried the handle, it was locked.  
"Rachel?" He tried the handle again. "Please, open up…" There was a small noise as she approached the door and Kurt heard her unlock it. He opened the door and looked at his friend sitting on the floor with her back against the tub. Her face was red and swollen, Kurt couldn't even imagine how long she'd been in there crying her heart out. Most of the times he knew what to do with his friend but at this moment he was totally lost. He walked in and closed the door behind him and locked it to make sure his dad or Carole didn't walk in while he was giving Rachel the letter he had in his hand. Kurt sat down next to her and took her hand, they were quite for some time before Rachel put her small head on his shoulder. Kurt felt a few tears dropping on his shoulder.  
"I… I just… just really want… him here." She sobbed into his chest as he pulled her closer. He put his hand through her hair and tried to calm her down.  
"I know, I know. I want him here too…" They sat quite for a short time before Kurt moved and Rachel sat up leaning against the tub again. Kurt sighed and took a deep breath before pulling out the envelope and giving it to her. "It's from Finn. I got it with the mail a while ago. There was a note for me saying to give it to you when you needed it. I honestly forgot about it for a while but found it just now and well… this is the time." Rachel looked up at him in confusion and took the envelope in her hands. She looked at it, recognizing Finn's handwrite and then looked back up at Kurt again. Kurt understood and stood up and before unlocking the door he looked back at Rachel. She was sitting on the floor with the envelope in her hands starring at it. Kurt left the room and closed the door behind him. He went in to the kitchen where he found Carole and his dad.  
"Is everything okay?"  
"Yes, dad."

She couldn't find the courage to open the envelope, she was scared what it would say. She took one deep breath and looked down at is one last time before turning it and opening it up. She took out the letter and unfolded it. It was thick, about five pages, back and forth. She looked at it and tears formed in her eyes as she saw the handwrite she knew so well. In high school she hadn't been homesick much, she was close to never sick but the times she had been Finn would come over to her house after school or practice, depending on what time of the year it was, and he would bring her notes he had taken during the day. Any other day when they were in class and Rachel looked over on his notes she could barely read what it said, but when she wasn't there he focused harder on getting them readable, just for her. There'd been moments when she would try to read notes from the classes they didn't have together and there was no way she could read anything. There were these moments when he made sure to make small things like this count that she loved him even more, if that was possible. She looked down at the paper again and tried to focus on the content of the letter. She disappeared into the letter within a few seconds and quietly small tears formed in her eyes, as well as a small smile on her lips.

**Will you look at that? I even got in some of my own thoughts about a ceratin situation in this chapter, that wasn't really the plan. Anyway, I had almost like Kurt forgotten about the letter so well.. yeah, that's why it came in a bit late and also why some tings may take a little longer to happen.**

**Please review. 3**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: Glee's not mine, as always… would be fun if it was though…  
I kind of love this chapter a little bit cause it's so sweet and actually a little happier than some of the earlier ones. Awh, I'm so happy…  
Oh, and my best friend comes home from New Zealand today! Haven't seen her in 18 months! Exchange years...  
**

Finn boarded the plane and sat down at his seat. He'd managed to get the aisle seat which was a good thing considering his super long legs.  
"Excuse me…" a young woman was standing by him in the aisle she nodded to the empty seat next to Finn and he just looked at her waiting for her to say something more. "I… My seat." She nodded and Finn stood up. Her voice was so freaking low and Finn was tired of people treating him differently but he realized this woman wouldn't say anything more or louder to him so he just let her slip in and then sat back down. When everyone was seated and it was time for departure Finn leaned his head back. In about six hours he would be in London. There he'd stay for seven hours before the seven hour flight to Miami and from there, well that was up to fate. They were just about to pull out when the pilot shot of the engines and spoke in the speakers.  
_"Unfortunately we have lost 70 pounds of fuel. We'll have to double check the plane and refill before we can depart. We apologize for the inconvenient and hope you will understand. If any questions or concerns about connections please talk to our staff." _ Finn sighed and stretched out his back, one of the flight attendants walked passed him.  
"Excuse me…" she turned around and looked at him with friendly eyes. "Do you have any idea how long this will take? I have a connection in London and…"  
"I'm really sorry but at this moment I don't know. How long is your wait in London?"  
"About seven hours. I don't know if it'll be a problem at all, seven hours is a long time but…"  
"Yeah, well, Heathrow is a big airport with a lot of people. Will you have to check in your baggage again?"  
"No, or I don't think so." Finn had been travelling before and stuff but now when he was asked he wasn't really sure.  
"Can I see your boarding pass?" Finn picked it up and handed it to the attendant. "Oh, no you won't have to check in again so that just saved you about two hours." She smiled at him. "I think you'll be fine, and if not the staff will help you with a new flight. Are you living in Miami?" She gave back the boarding pass.  
"No. That was just the first flight over to the US. Depending on what flights will leave from there I'll see where I'm going."  
"Oh, trying to find a new start?" she looked at him in understanding like she'd been in the same situation.  
"Not really. I live in Ohio and my family is there but my fiancée…" he stopped himself. "…well… my…"  
"Your girl?" she giggled at his confusion.  
"Right, thanks. Well, she lives in New York so… I don't know where to start."  
"Well, it's all up to fate right?" she smiled and walked away a sparkling ring on her left ring finger. Any normal guy would have hated seeing that ring but Finn was glad that she had someone, and honestly he had not been attracted to her, he hadn't been attracted to anyone since Rachel. Was that normal for a guy? He felt someone stare at him and he turned his head to his left. And almost jumped at the look the woman next to him had.  
"Excuse me? Are you okay?" he asked and she looked like a deer found in the spotlights. Her face turned a dark shade of red and she quickly turned away.

Rachel had moved herself from the bathroom to the bedroom when Kurt had knocked on the door telling her that Burt and Carole was up. Kurt had helped them pack their stuff and moved the suitcases out in the hall. Rachel had quietly moved not wanting anyone to catch her, but Kurt had seen her and he almost smiled at her as she tip-toed across the hall her eyes not leaving the letter and a small smile on her face. It had really been a good time to give her the letter.  
"So when do you have to check in?" Kurt asked as he realized the two grown-ups following his stare.  
"Oh, eh… I think between 3 and 7 pm." Kurt looked at his phone. It was 11.39 am. Was he going to ask if they wanted to go out for lunch and leave Rachel alone so she could get some privacy or should he tell them to go out and that they could all have dinner together or, as the third scenario, should he cook a simple lunch now and then they would all go out when Rachel felt ready. Maybe the last one was the best.  
"Are you hungry at all?" he asked as he stood up to go to the kitchen. If anyone said yes he had to make sure he could make something.  
"We're fine honey. We just had breakfast." Kurt nodded to Carole and came back with a glass of water he didn't really wanted but it would be weird to go out to the kitchen and then come back empty handed. "How's Rachel?" Kurt looked up. He hadn't told his dad or Carole about the letter. After all he had gotten it in the mail, it was one small single note for him and then the letter was to Rachel, and no one else.  
"I think she's starting to get better actually." He answered and smiled at the thought of Rachel sitting on her bed smiling while she read.

_Everyday I'm trying to imagine what you're doing and how you're feeling. I've been waking up a few times feeling that something was wrong with you. There was this one time in the middle of the night when I woke up and had a terrible cough and my throat hurt and for some weird reason it was like the cough and my throat wasn't my body telling me I was getting sick it was telling me that you were. It may have been my super weird imagination or a dream or something but seriously Rach, if you had a small cold recently (well… depending on when you read this…) let me know cause if you had this is freaking creepy, but still kind of cool. _She had actually had a cold a while ago, it didn't last for long but for a few days she couldn't stop coughing and her throat really did hurt. She smiled at the thought of Finn feeling her feelings and continued reading. _Oh, and don't worry. I woke up the next morning feeling great. _Rachel smiled and giggled a little bit. She read on and on, she was now on the last piece of paper. _I can't possible describe how much I miss you Rachel. It's insane. I know I hurt you that one day when I send you away but I knew you had to leave and like I said, keeping you away from your dream would kill me. It's just that recently I've begun to think about what would have happened if I had just come to New York with you. What had it all been like if we got married that one day and then left together? Would it had been so bad? Despite that I feel like I do belong here. I actually fit in and who knows if or when but I'm in training and if I get the chance to help people that would be the most incredible thing ever. _  
"And that's what you've done…" Rachel said quietly to herself a few tears forming in her eyes but for ones they weren't tears of sadness. Yes she was sad and upset about Finn and not knowing anything, but he had saved people, he had made a difference, and that's all he wanted. She continue reading and turned the page. _Rachel, if you're reading this it will probably be for a few different reasons. Either I'm back to you and holding you in my arms right now while you read this, I may actually be asleep, sorry if that's so. Another reason can be that Kurt just knew you needed to hear from me, perhaps you're having a rough time with school or you know… anything. Then there's another reason, something happened to me. There's actually been a few guys getting seriously injured during training and I've heard they may come and chose some of us to go out on the fields. If the last scenario is the reason you're reading right now I don't ever want you to give up. Don't you dare give up on me, Rachel. Always believe I'm alright and alive until you hear otherwise. And if I won't see you again, don't every forget how much I love you but don't stop your life. Keep on living your dream, become the star I know you are and live life. Get married, have the wedding of your dream with someone you're truly in love with and as long as he doesn't hurt you I will be there watching and giving you my blessing. I'm going to be at your first Broadway performance by spirit or person, I will be there and I will cheer you on. You told me ones that Shelby had told you she would always be your biggest fan, I think she was wrong. I will always be the biggest, if she disagrees tell her to bring it up with me. I really, really, really love you so much Rachel. I can't say it enough and I wish I will one day be able to say it to your face, looking into your beautiful eyes and touching your face. I will see you again Rachel, and if I won't see you on this planet I don't want to see you till you're old and have done everything you ever wanted to do. Do you understand me? Don't every give up love, I love you so much and like I said, I will see you. Love, Finn. _The paper was a little wrinkled here and there, probably from his tears and Rachel was crying to. Quiet soft sobs she took the full letter in her hands pulled out the drawer to her nightstand and took out the photo of Finn she kept there. She then pulled it all to her chest and laid down on the bed hugging it all tight crying, quietly. Ones again she whispered to herself:  
"Please, please come home Finn."

"Yes, yes I understand."  
"He doesn't want us to tell them though. Said he wanted to do it himself."  
"That's fine isn't it? We all know about it, and if the family has any questions they can contact us and we will answer them."  
"Well, I guess that would be fine if it wasn't for the possibility that he won't be speaking the truth while telling them."  
"Why would you lie about something like this. There's a reason this… how to say… incident had to happen but it's still a pretty good one considering what other people have…"  
"I believe it's protocol sir. The news have to come from us. Why can't we just call the mother and tell her what had happened and then we'll see. At this moment we don't even know if he'll be able to tell them."  
"What do you mean not able to? He's going back to the US right? You think he'll just not return to his family and friends? I know Finn Hudson and that sort of behavior is not him."  
"I meant his flight should've landed in London two hours ago."  
"There might have been something delaying the departure. There's always something right?"  
"Maybe, but there's no records about a delay and we recently got in news about a flight crash in Ukraine. All flights from here to London goes over there…"  
"As well as a million other flights. Is there anything saying that this is the flight?"  
"No, but you know better than anyone that this is not a place that's easy to get out from. It's a 50/50 chance Mr. Hudson is alright. Still think we shouldn't contact the family?"  
"Not yet I'm telling you."

**Okay, so it got a bit darker towards the end than I was thinking at first. Oh, and that thing about losing fuel, that happened to me when leaving Vegas to come back home after a year. Just so you all know. ;)  
Oh, and I was almost crying when I wrote the letter )': But yeah...  
Please leave reviews ^^**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: Guess what, Glee's still not mine…  
I had kind of forgot about school and stuff but let's say the school has started but that it's the weekend for now. **

Kurt knocked on the door to the bedroom and opened it. It was almost 4 pm and they were thinking about going out for dinner.  
"Rachel?" Carole and Burt stood behind him as he walked in the room. Burt stayed by the door while Kurt and Carole walked over to the side of the bed where Rachel was laying. She was sleeping and hugging a photo frame and some papers. Kurt sighted sadly and sat down from his kneeling on the floor.  
"What is that?" Carole asked as she looked at what Rachel was hugging so tightly. They could see that she'd been crying and the pillow her head rested on had a big spot from all the tears that had fallen on it.  
"I would guess a photo of Finn and…" he paused not knowing if he could tell them or not. Either way they would not allow to read it unless both Rachel and Finn was okay with it. But they would certainly ask a bunch of questions. "… a letter from Finn." Burt and Carole starred at him.  
"Wha… what?" Carole looked at him, almost anger in her eyes for not telling her earlier. Burt walked into the room and leaned against the wall.  
"What do you mean a letter from Finn?" Kurt breathed in to get all the anger away. His dad and Carole getting mad on him for not telling pissed him off.  
"I got a letter from Finn a while ago. There was a small note in the envelope for me telling me to give the letter to _Rachel_…" he said her name a little stronger to point out that the letter was to her and no one else. "… I had forgotten about it until this morning when I found it and when I later found Rachel crying in the bathroom and telling me she needed him back I knew that it was the right time to give it to her. That's what she'd been doing the whole day. Reading that letter and, well… crying about it…" he looked up at his parents. "Still mad at me?" he asked with irritation in his voice.  
"I'm sorry Kurt." Carole said and put a hand on his shoulder. "I understand." She smiled and sat down on the bed next to Rachel and took some hair away from her swollen face. "You know what? Can you two leave us for a moment?" she said to Kurt and Burt. They both left the room, Kurt a little unsure about leaving but then eventually closing the door carefully behind him.

Carole felt with Rachel, she'd been in the same situation. Sure this was her son they were talking about and she loved him with everything she was, but the girl beside her seemed to have given up while she still had hope. Rachel moved a little and flickered her eyes open. She sat up in the bed and looked at her.  
"Carole?" her voice was raspy and weak. Carole nodded and the two talked about everything for a while. She told Rachel that she knew about the letter but didn't expect her to tell her about it.  
They sat in the bedroom for about half an hour and talked about everything. At first they talked about Finn and what had happened and possible could. Later they had come on to topics about NYADA and all kinds of stuff. Carole had known Rachel for about four years, more or less. She remembered the first time she heard about her. Finn had come home from school on day and told her he was going to join Glee club. She had been a bit surprised at first but if Mr. Shuester believed in him. A few days later Carole had asked him how it had been Finn had then told her about this girl who had kind of freaked him out at first but had an incredible voice. After that things went on as normal, well until she found out that Quinn was pregnant and after that she just lost it. All of a sudden everyone had been in Glee club and after the pregnancy came out the drama was on. The first time she met Rachel was in the summer, they'd said hello to one another a few times before that when Rachel had been at their house or they've met somewhere else but the first time they actually talked was in mid June when Rachel spent a few days at their house. Her dads were going on some cruise somewhere and Finn didn't want her to be alone. Carole had always liked Rachel, more than Quinn or any of the other girls Finn hung around with. From the very first time they met Rachel had always been so polite and sweet and caring. She'd never seen anything like that before and she was so glad her son had found her. Unfortunately something happened between herself and Finn after the wedding. They were still very close but he didn't come to her as often anymore. Somewhere during the fall Finn and Rachel had broken up and she hadn't thought about it until she realized Rachel wasn't over as much and then when Finn and Quinn all of a sudden were going to prom. Things had sure been weird for a while there. She remembered when all the kids had gone to New York for nationals and Burt had texted Kurt to ask him how it all went and all he had gotten back was: _Ask your stepson. _Burt and Carole had barely realized what the text said before another one came: _Why right then? They had like forever before the freaking show, and hello, after too! They ruined our chances! Sure it was adorable and I'm happy for them but really, right then, and for like forever? God…_ Later they had understood what that was all about and from that moment till Finn put her on the train to New York they'd been inseparable.  
"Why didn't you tell us?" Rachel asked and Carole disappeared from her flashbacks.  
"Huh?"  
"None of you wanted us to get married, so why didn't you just let us know?" It was anger or sadness in her voice, just confusion.  
"I… I'm not quite sure. I don't think it was that we didn't want the two of you to get married, just that it was too early. And honestly, I don't know why we didn't tell you. Perhaps because we had a feeling neither of you would listen to us. You would hear us but not… follow our… suggestion." Rachel nodded seaming to understand.  
"Well, it looks like you didn't have to and… well… were right." She looked down at her lap and started to play with her fingers.  
"Oh you be quiet. Rachel, Finn is coming back and within a few years you will be married and happy."  
"You really think so?"  
"Know so." She pulled Rachel in to a hug and closed her eyes. She wasn't completely sure. If Finn would come back home they would be married soon, that she was pretty sure of, the question was if he would come back.

Rachel has always loved Carole. She had never had a mom or any kind of mother figure in her life. The closest she had was Shelby and Carole, and well… Shelby hadn't been around much. The first time she had come over to Finn's house she'd been worried sick over the fact that she might run into Carole. Finn had told her over and over that she would love her but Rachel hadn't been too sure, Finn had been dating Quinn for a long time and she was like perfect in Rachel's eyes and she was sure Carole felt the same way. But she'd been wrong. Carole had been so nice to her even though they only saw each other for like a minute. It wasn't until the summer between sophomore and junior year that she had really gotten time to get to know Carole and she loved the woman more and more for each day. They spent mornings when she stayed over night in the kitchen making breakfast while Finn was asleep and then laughed at him as he walked in the kitchen hair all over his face and with a confused look on his face. When he saw Rachel he nodded and turned around and walked up to his room again and came back after an hour. This happened almost every morning, like he was always equally confused when Rachel wasn't in the guest room at the time he woke up.  
She smiled in Carole's embrace and felt so much calmer and safer, there was only a very few people that could make her this calm and only one who could make her calmer and feel more safe.  
"Dad no!" Rachel lifted her head when she heard Kurt yell at his dad. She looked at Carole confused and she had the same expression on her face.  
"Oh come on now. How about this one?"  
"Seriously?" Carole smiled and Rachel giggled a little as they heard Kurt mentioning a name of a Broadway show.  
"You better get out there and help them out." Carole said to Rachel with a big grin. Rachel smiled at her and laughed.  
"I'll do my best." They both walked out of the bedroom to see Burt and Kurt looking in the paper for shows. Kurt turned around as he saw them come out. He looked at Rachel.  
"You agree with me right? No Spider-Man." He looked hopeful although he should know that he was right. If it was one show Rachel and Kurt would not go on it would be one of them. She nodded and looked to Burt.  
"I'm sorry but… Kurt's right, no Spider-Man." Burt sighed and sat down.  
"The almighty as spoken." He grinned at Rachel who laughed at him. Carole smiled and went to sit down next to Burt.  
"Well, what else is there?" Carole said looking at Kurt. Rachel came to sit too and looked at the paper.  
"Let's see…" she said as she looked down. "… Mamma Mia…"  
"Seen it" the rest answered and Rachel agreed.  
"The Lion King, that was amazing, Evita, Wicked…" she looked at Kurt who hummed the melody to Popular. Rachel smiled. "… well we can perform that without charge…" Kurt laughed. "…Chicago, Jersey Boys, The Book of Mormon, I'd love to see that! And there 's also Rock of Ages, Newsies, Mary Poppins and Chaplin."  
"I put my vote on Book of Mormon." Kurt said and Burt and Carole nodded in agreement.

Finn woke up and looked around. It was pretty quiet and the movie screens were showing children movies. He looked to his left and saw the girl leaning her head on his shoulder. He looked down at her and shook his shoulder a little. She woke up and sat up quicker than should be possible after a sleep.  
"S…so…sorry." She whispered and turned her back towards him.  
"Why are you acting like this? Not daring to look at me, barley speaking to me. What have I ever done to you?"  
"N… nothing. Nothing at all."  
"Great so stop it, alright?" She nodded and Finn sighed. He took a quick glance at the screen in front of him telling him where they were and how long time it was left. They were just above southern Russia headed to the Ukrainian boarder. Well, at least they were in Europe, right? The screen switch to another picture telling him it was about two hours left of the flight before they would be in London. He breathed in and tried to relax. God he wished they had been allowed to bring their iPods the music he had on his could calm him down no matter what, but that was not the case. He fumbled with the radio to find a good station but it didn't want to work. As he looked up he realized the screens all started to flicker and stopped working. He begged to himself for the small children to not start screaming, that would not be good for him or anyone else at this moment.

**Are you guys confused? Scared? Mohaha! I love Broadway shows! Please review! **


	16. Chapter 16

Finn let out a sigh as the engine was shut off. They landed in London two and a half hour later than planned and luckily the entertainment had started to work again after a few minutes. He stood up and took his carry on for a moment he considered just leaving but when he realized the girl next to him had trouble getting her bag down from the storage above he helped her and they walked towards the door. He nodded politely to the attendant he talked to earlier during the flight and continued out the gate.  
"You have a connection?" he asked as they passed towards the main area of Heathrow airport.  
"No. My cousin lives here in London, gonna spend some time with her." They talked the way down the busy corridor till it split up, one way leading to the baggage claim and the other to the other gates. They said goodbye and wished each other good luck. Finn walked down the corridor and looked down on his flight information. He looked up to locate himself and saw his gate a few feet away from where he was. There was a information screen right next to him, boarding in 1 hour. Great. He walked around a bit, took another coffee, perhaps something he shouldn't have but coffee is coffee.

Kurt took Rachel's hand and squeezed it. She looked at him and saw some tears in his eyes, she smiled. No matter what show they went on Kurt always shed a tear or two, she usually did too but tonight her mind was not in the show she was somewhere else. Where she has no idea but definitely somewhere else. Once it ended Kurt and Rachel told the other two to stay behind since they would get out much easier and faster once it's less crowded. Burt sat back down and laughed.  
"If it is what the veterans say" he smiles at Rachel and Kurt. They started to move out and Rachel noticed how Carole seemed to look at her like she was trying to find something in her face. She pretended like she didn't notice and continued out the theatre. They turned left and came out on Times Square. The dark sky lit up by the thousands of colorful lights from the screens all over the area. Rachel didn't really pay any attention to what was going on. The others were talking to each other about something, probably what they would do next. Rachel just starred at north part of the square, right under the New Years ball and below the big screen, a big bright red staircase. There were a few people sitting on the stair talking in smaller groups. Two years ago it was them. The whole Glee club, New Directions were in New York City together and even though they had lost nationals it had been one of the most amazing trips of her life. She had been with her friends and she had had an amazing time with Finn. Finn.  
They walked around in the city for some time and ended up at a Starbucks. Everything was kind of great, they were all talking and Rachel had managed to snap out of her little bubble and was now talking to Carole about everything she loved about living here and all the fun they'd had so far. It was all kind of awesome.

The flight from London to Miami was quicker than he thought, maybe because he actually fell asleep for some time. When the attendant called for preparation for landing butterflies began to flicker their wings in his belly. Where was he going after Miami? Was his destiny New York or Lima? He breathed in and looked out the window. The sky was a clear blue color and the sun was shining bright. There were a few thin stripes of clouds and he remembered the summer between junior and senior year when he and Rachel had taken a day trip to a small beach about two hours from Lima. It had been such a beautiful day. They had left Lime real early and since Finn was everything but a morning person Rachel had forced him to take the passenger seat, she had told him it was so he could sleep some more but they both knew the truth – she was scared to death that he would fall asleep while driving and kill them both. He would never though, especially not with Rachel in the car. Never in a million years would he hurt her, physically, he'd obviously already hurt her mentally a number of times. When they arrived at the beach they had laid down in the hot sand and looked up at the sky. It was the same clear blue color as the one outside at this moment, and those small clouds. She had told him how this was her favorite sky. Finn had laughed at that, thinking that it was the most adorable thing anyone could ever have said and as the chuckle came out she had continued explaining how it was much prettier this way, because nothing was as beautiful plain as it would be with some decorations. He could honest to God say he adored her more than any other person on this planet. Who else would think of it all that way? She was just simply amazing.  
The plane landed and nervous as he'd never been before he walked out, grabbed his luggage and went up to the check in. He found the screen with all the flight information and before looking up at it he closed his eyes and without any real thought about why he prayed to God that destiny would choose New York City. Finn opened his eyes and looked up. Destination: New York City Departure Time: 12.43. That was in 45 minutes. He could make it. He hurried away to the closest check in, thankfully there was no line.  
"Is there any possibility to get on the flight to New York at 12.43?" he asked as he reached the counter.  
"Let me check that for you, sir." The attendant said and looked at the computer screen in front of her. "Will you look at that, there's one seat left. You want it?"  
"Oh, God, yes please!" Finn breathed out for the first time in what felt like eternity.  
"Identification then please." Finn gave her his ID and paid for the ticket.  
"Thank you, so much." He said as he rushed away to the security gates.

They had come back to the apartment around midnight and had gone to bed. They were surprised to find no Jesse when they opened the door but didn't think more about that.  
Rachel woke up the next morning to her phone going all nuts. She looked at it and saw Jesse's face.  
"Hello…"  
"Hey! I just wanted to apologies for not letting you guys know where I was last night and tell you that I've found a place."  
"Jesse, that's great!" she was both happy for him and for the fact that she would get her bed back. "Where?"  
"Close to the school, I ran in to a friend I haven't seen in forever and apparently she has an apartment here and well, I was asked to move in. I gotta go Rachel, but thank you so, so much and I'll see you in school and all and well, if you ever need anything."  
"Yeah sure, no problem. Bye." They hung up and Rachel sighed. Was it wrong to be kind of happy? She looked to her left to see Kurt and with a big smile on her face she kicked him out of the bed.  
"What the hell!?"  
"Jesse found a new place, which means that you have your bed back which means that this is bed is mine and mine only." Kurt starred at her for a moment before going into a full laugh attack and ended up back on the floor crying out of laughter.  
"You're crazy you know that?"  
They spend the day in, it was raining like crazy and they had everything they needed. They joked around and did everything they hadn't been able to do since everyone moved in or visited.  
As the morning went on Rachel began to feel a little weird. Like something wasn't right. Her head hurt and she felt so tired. Around lunch she'd already been taking all the medication that was allowed and taken several naps and still not feeling better. Kurt began to worry about her and was close to call Carole to ask if she had any idea of what it could be. At around 4 pm Kurt sat in the sofa with Rachel's head in his lap stroking her hair while she slept. He had the news on but was barely watching it. He jumped when there was a knock on the door. Rachel sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes before following Kurt to the door. They opened it and Kurt couldn't believe his eyes. There he was. Rachel who was still feeling extremely weak held on to Kurt as she starred at this man outside the door. He was tall, broad shoulders, extremely good looking and really amazing arms and body overall. This guy just looked so good it was almost hurting her. She met his eyes and melted, he was once again making her feel this way. The man licked his lips and looked at the two.  
"Are you letting me come in?" Kurt wrapped his arms around him and hugged him tightly.  
"We're so glad you're okay, Finn." He smiled as he let go and Finn smiled back at him. Kurt turned around and looked at Rachel who had tears in her eyes. He motioned for Finn to come in and embrace her and that's what he did. He took two steps in and took the petite weak girl in his arms and hugged her. Just stood there hugging her and feeling her arms come around his waist, not as strong as he was used to but they were hugging. Her head fell on his chest and he hugged her tighter. He carefully lifted her head to look at him. He wiped a tear away and kissed her nose. Kurt had slowly and quietly closed the door and walked over to his area.  
"I'm so, so sorry Rachel." Finn said as he wiped another tear away. Rachel just looked at him.  
"I-I- I thought you… you were…dead." She finally got out and more or less collapsed on to Finn. He only hugged her tighter.  
"I promise I'll tell you everything, babe. I promise." He whispered the last words and hugged her even tighter, if that was even possible.

He couldn't be happier at this very moment. He was probably in some kind of trance and didn't really know what was going on, but that didn't matter because he was in New York. He was sitting in the sofa with Rachel resting on his chest, his mom next to him and his stepfather and brother in front of him. After he'd explain and told everyone about everything, that he was allowed to say, they had talked about a little of everything and then had a small take out dinner. When Finn had told them about the building and all that craziness he had felt how Rachel stiffened and made sure to show her that he was okay by rubbing her pack and kissing her forehead, which now when he looks back at things felt really hot. Everyone else were really busy with the movie that was playing on the TV, since he'd gotten to the apartment he'd felt like something wasn't totally right. Rachel hadn't been herself and the moment the subject had been switch from what had happened to him to what they'd all been doing today she drifted off and fell asleep. They woke her up for dinner where she barely ate anything and now she was back asleep. Kurt seemed to know what was going on and Finn could feel his mother knowing, just like him, that something was wrong. Finn the back of his hand on Rachel's forehead and felt the burn, he looked down at her feeling more worried than he'd ever done before. People get fever all the time, he get it all the time, but this was insane, or was it just him? She didn't look good either, she was pale and exhausted and Finn didn't know why.  
"How long has she been like this?" he asked looking directly at Kurt, feeling a little bit of anger inside of him. Kurt turned to look at him and then looked down at Rachel, a sad expression filling his face.  
"She hasn't been herself since pretty much the day I got here, there were perhaps a couple of days where I saw some part of the crazy Rachel we all knew in Lima. Since things has just gotten worse. I thought it was because of you. You know, she was worried and all." Finn nodded. Maybe he was right. The only thing anyone could do was wait and see what would happen. All four of the Hudson-Hummel looked at Rachel worried that it might be something else.


End file.
